ED Nursing Archives – May 1, 2004
May 1, 2004
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Perform abdominal assessment, or risk missing life-threatening trauma injury
When a trauma patient comes to your ED, are head and extremity injuries the first thing on your radar screen? Nurses often look for obvious trauma and forget to assess the abdomen sort of like the saying out of sight, out of mind, says Kelly Arashin, RN, CEN, night charge nurse and trauma coordinator for the ED at Hilton Head (SC) Regional Medical Center. -
Education is the key for switch to 5-level triage
This is the second of a two-part series on switching to a five-level triage system. This month, well cover effective strategies to avoid problems during the transition. -
What can you legally tell patients about delays?
Are you ever tempted to tell a patient with a sore throat who comes to your ED on a busy Saturday night that hell most likely be there in the morning, still waiting to be seen? What about if a woman with a headache asks you if shell make it home in time to pick up the kids at school and you take one look at the crowded waiting room and know the answer is no? -
What to say when patients ask ‘How long?’
Following are sample responses recommended by Shelley Cohen, RN, CEN, a member of the Emergency Nurses Associations task force on the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act. -
Just-surveyed EDs report on new JCAHO process
Have you pictured accreditation surveyors interviewing your newest, least well-spoken nurse about your restraint policy, as part of the new Shared Visions, New Pathways survey process that began in January 2004? Or have you envisioned patient tracers being done for an ED patient where everything that could go wrong, did? -
Are you putting patients at risk during transport?
Critical care patients being held in your ED for hours at a time are probably a familiar sight. Youre probably aware of the increased patient care needs these patients have, such as additional monitoring and assessment. But there is another factor putting these patients at risk: The chance of severe injury or death during transport for diagnostic tests such as computed tomography (CT) scans and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). -
Bring lifesaving items on patient transports
Here is a listing of the supplies contained in the drug and airway boxes carried by ED nurses transporting patients for diagnostic tests at McKay Dee Hospital in Ogden, UT. -
Is your ED unsafe? Make these changes now
Do you worry about unsafe staffing levels, a shortage of experienced nurses, a lack of trust between administration and staff, long work hours, and systems that dont promote safety and efficiency? If so, you have new ammunition to call for dramatic changes in your ED. -
Shave up to 15 minutes off treatment of chest pain
Would you like to cut door-to-treatment times for patients with acute coronary syndrome and acute myocardial infarction by up to 15 minutes? Put together a Chest Pain Tackle Box, recommends Marilyn Swinford, RN, director of emergency and outpatient services at Saint Joseph Hospital in Lexington, KY. -
ED saves $150,000 by using fewer agency nurses
With an ever increasing nursing shortage coupled with increased patient volumes, you may believe its impossible to cut labor costs in your ED. Not so, says Laura Guerrieri, RN, MBA, director of emergency services at Gottlieb Memorial Hospital in Melrose Park, IL.