You know you're an ED nurse when.....

Specialties Emergency

Published

Specializes in Cardiac Telemetry, ED.

Anybody have an "Aha!" moment when you knew you were an ED nurse?

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Specializes in ED, ICU, MS/MT, PCU, CM, House Sup, Frontline mgr.

you know you're an ed nurse when one of your patients goes into cardiopulmonary arrest, the doc asks if he to needs to call the code team, everyone looks at him strangely, and you respond, "we are the code team!":up:

i actually worked outside of the ed prior to my current job so the "aha" moments mean a lot to me!

-happy new nurse finally training on traumas!

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Specializes in ED, CTSurg, IVTeam, Oncology.

...while in the process of simply walking by, in the midst of delivering Jello to another patient, you casually administer a pre-cordial thump and successfully resuscitate a patient that you happen to see had slipped into Ventricular Tachycardia. Seeing the rhythm go back to Normal Sinus Rhythm, you immediately and blithely resume your Jello delivery mission, and along the way tell his primary that her patient had gone into VT and was converted with one Pre-cordial blow, and suggest that she retake his vitals as you hurry down the hall... :uhoh3:

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Specializes in Emergency & Trauma/Adult ICU.

When a shift in the ICU with multiple codes seems calm & controlled by comparison ... :smokin:

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Specializes in PACU, ER, Level 1Trauma.
...while in the process of simply walking by, in the midst of delivering Jello to another patient, you casually administer a pre-cordial thump and successfully resuscitate a patient that you happen to see had slipped into Ventricular Tachycardia. Seeing the rhythm go back to Normal Sinus Rhythm, you immediately and blithely resume your Jello delivery mission, and along the way tell his primary that her patient had gone into VT and was converted with one Pre-cordial blow, and suggest that she retake his vitals as you hurry down the hall... :uhoh3:

I love this. ACLS got rid of the precordial thump but damn, it really works.

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Is the pre-cordial thump a thump on the sternum?

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Specializes in EMS, ED, Trauma, CEN, CPEN, TCRN.

Yep, at the center of the sternum. The AHA removed it from ACLS, but I've seen it work in a witnessed arrest, too.

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Specializes in ER.

Ha- I had a pt go into vtach as the family was walking out the door, doc at the bedside. We looked at the moniter, then checked to see the family go round the corner, then

THUMP!

...and we're back. With an amniodarone drip, as fast as I could mix it.

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Specializes in icu, cviu, longterm.

precordial thumps are great.....although i'm not an ER nurse....used them a lot in ccu. your er's must be different than what i'm used to. trained monkeys could work ER's here in ohio

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Specializes in PACU, ER, Level 1Trauma.

:mad:

precordial thumps are great.....although i'm not an ER nurse....used them a lot in ccu. your er's must be different than what i'm used to. trained monkeys could work ER's here in ohio

Not sure what part of Ohio you live in but this ER nurse in Cincy is a hell of alot more than a monkey and I believe my Docs would agree. Get a little more experience, spend some time working in a large ER and then come on back and put down others in our profession. Shame on you! All fields of nursing should be treated with respect, especially from other nurses.

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Specializes in Cardiac Telemetry, ED.

The ol' battleaxes (and I mean that affectionately) on my old unit (cardiac) used to use the precordial thump for tachyarrhythmias. I've never been taught the technique, nor have I witnessed it. I have successfully terminated SVT with a vagal maneuver, however. That was pretty cool.

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Specializes in ER.

if you've ever laughed til you peed your pants, at decapitation as a punch line.

if you've needed a bedpan and a defibrillator at the same time

if you've ever set your watch by the 630am EMS arrival (you know, the one just before shift change, with a multisystem train wreck)

if you've made a patient med list by playing "name that pill" in one of those plastic weekly dosing containers.

if you've ever triaged someone with no health problems at all, but they take a page full of meds and have almost as many allergies.

if you've ever triaged a five member group who all got sick on the same day.

if chocolate brownies taste a little more sinful and delicious when you eat them out of a bedpan.

if a news scandal doesn't rock your world, because you heard and saw it in person, and it wasn't that much fun.

if you've ever shamed someone out of a coma. Bonus points if you did it in the waiting room with family flopping around on the sidelines.

if you've ever given someone a higher triage score because you want to get them away from their audience.

if you've politely and calmly responded to a complaint about the wait as the morgue stretcher rolls out behind you.

if you've ever tried to guess the wait time again and again, and not been right even once.

if you've finally gone with "at least two more hours" and "very busy" as an answer, every time, every issue.

if you've ever told a waiting room full of people that they'd be doing the ER employees a favor if they'd please complain, and given them names.

if you love your poopy stinky job because you work with great people who are all in this together, and if you are reminded every day that you can be one of the luckiest people in the world, even when you feel like hell.

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