Why is everyone hating on ED?

Specialties Emergency

Published

Man we are the most disliked place in the hospital and everyone has a complaint! Took a critically ill patient to ICU tonight with blood, two antibiotics, sandostatin drip, insulin drip, protonix drip, and fluids to the floor at 1850. We get the patient situated (which the ICU nurses did not want or appreciate my help at all) and then they are upset because I didn't do the 1900 glucose check for her insulin drip?!:down:

We get written up and complained about for ridiculous things (like forgetting to put our phone number on the paperwork we send up to the floor...um call the ED and ask to speak with me if you need me that badly). Anyone else have similar experiences?

From an ICU nurse perspective:

They're just ticked off they're getting a busy patient ;)

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Specializes in Emergency Nursing.

I work in a freestanding ER so we transfer our patients to main hospital for admits. I give floor 3 chances for report then I send them via ambulance. Sometimes charge on floor will take report but I usually get ******* out. Ha! I get "we are busy you need to give report". Oh well. Not gonna clog up a 9 bed er that sees very critical patients codes all the time. The best is when floor nurses call back about patient's diet. Seriously?

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Specializes in Emergency, Trauma, Critical Care.

I've been on both ends. Where I'm at now we do a handoff report that they never read and they still want verbal. We are supposed to tell them. Read it and I'll call back in 5. If they haven't read we send the patient up anyways. We see 350 to 400 puts a day in our 40 bed ER. The nice thing is where I work the system realizes ER overcrowding is a hospital problem and tries to fix it in every part of the flow. I get attitude from ICU nurses rar y. Happened a lot more at my last job. They usually shush when I state I was too an ICU nurse and I appreciate them being professional on the job. After all, we are professionals and lateral violence doesn't help. Especially with the changing healthcare tide, we need to unite more than ever now and make the positive changes we are completely capable of.

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Yeah or they want us to call the attending/admitting doctor to ask

about an order 2 minutes before they get sent up to the floor. Ah no, you can call them. I had one patient who was staying 93%-95% on RA and the floor nurse (from the infamously difficult floor) asked me to call the hospitalist for an admitting order. I told her the patient is fine and she can call if she feels like it's necessary! Mind you this is the same floor who would call RRTs for a patient's HR being 110 because they have a fever and are fighting an infection.

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Just let it roll off. ER nursing is so much different from floor nursing, those who have never walked in your shoes will never understand. Some of the things they fail to realize on the floor are that a) We get most of our patients sight unseen with no report, b) The ambulances don't stop coming in at shift change, c) When the patient says that they haven't eaten all day and that the ER told them they'd get a meal tray "as soon as they get to the floor", that is probably NOT what was said, and d) We don't place IVs in the AC just to inconvenience the floor nurse (although at times, I don't think that's such a bad idea...). Let them hate. Just be happy you have the best job in the world!

Just smile and nod. Smile and nod....

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Specializes in Emergency, Critical Care, Trauma.

The ED has been and always will be the scapegoat for too many hospital problems. Unless they've worked in an ED before, they won't get it. Sure, it may be that nurse's second admission of the day, but you may have 40-deep in the lobby and have to keep flow moving. ED flow is an entire hospital problem.

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I had my first taste of this this week. I'm still orienting to ER and I had just gotten admission orders on 3 of my 4 patients (one after another). Immediately charge wanted them gone so I called report and one floor nurse asked if I'd done a full skin assessment. I said no b/c I'd looked at the butt/back but the patient was very large and I hadn't gone over all of his folds and such looking for wounds, I was more interested in making sure he was breathing (Pnu) and keeping his o2 up. Floor RN asked me to do that and all daily meds before I brought him up and I was like: "Um, no...daily meds aren't even due for another hour+, I'm transferring him" and floor RN got pissed! She threatened to "report me" to her supervisor!

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