It was a bit rough coming back from two weeks off and my first set was a bit hairy but am now coming off a great set!!. I thought I would share with you the "20 rules of ER nurse survival". Over the summer I had a mentorship line with Karen, a fantastic nurse. It was a 15 shift oreintation to solidfy my schooling and orientate me to the critical care postions that we fill at ARH. We saw a TON of stuff in those shifts and learned so much. Some days were crazier than others but pretty much every day we found a rule to add to our list.
1. Every postictal (after a siezure) pt gets a line-no matter what, If you don't put an IV line they will seize again for sure!
2. Take your break when offered- it may not come again.
3. Do what you have to do to get the pt treated with the least amount of crying- if that means singing "I'm a little teapot"- do it.
4. Life saving tetnus comes before airway.
5. Do not engage in yelling- it never solves anything.
6. Take every opportunity to ride in the Tube of Death (especially with Lonnie and Chris). You will learn something new every time.
7. When running to a code- take your own syringes.
8. Mentor/mentee relationship means you are only one nurse- not two- insist you be treated as such.
9. Don't let Melanie drive the crash car unless you have a death wish.
10. Treat others as you want to be treated.
11. Always check the patient yourself before calling the the doctor for someone.
12. Always look busy- then you won't be asked to do anything (kidding!!)- rather constantly look for learning experiences- better to learn with someone teaching than try to figure it out on your own.
13. Google is your best friend- Sulferic Acid Burns?? what do I do for that??.
14. Always double check your own infusions.
15. When triaging- reach out and touch EHS pts ( ambulance pts)
16. Never argue with the triage nurse- she may have seen something that you didn't. If she says the pt needs to be in trauma than the pt needs to be in trauma- at least for five minutes.
17. Don't make the cath lab people angry. wait for them to tell you what to do. They are very smart- you want them on your side.
18. Fill you beds with walking, talking people- it goes better for you that way.
19. When traveling in the Tube of Death bring snacks- you may be stuck longer than you think. (especially bring blueberry muffins).
20. When talking to psych pts- offer water,food, blankets- hungry psych pts are harder to reason with than full psych pts.
o.k. WHAT is the Tube of Death?????????
ReplyDeletesuper interesting :)
ReplyDeleteThe tube of death.... well that is a story in its self. We were transporting a trauma pt to RCH. It was a bit iffy if we should fly or drive them in, but the doc in consultation with the Trauma surgeon decided that we would drive it. When we got there the Trauma surgeon flounced on the scene and when she found out that we didn't know the resuts of an arterial blood gas (because it was drawn just as we were walking out the door) she said " SO you put the pt in the tube of death and drove them down the highway"- What on earth!!!! in front of the pt, who was at the moment quite stable.and it had been her decision to drive them in. That was only one of the complementary things she had to say about us That woman was a piece of work!!
ReplyDeleteabsolutely great! What an invaluable list of 'to do' for any nurse but especially an ER one!
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