Emergency Room Nursing
Have you just completed high school and feel passionate about helping people? Consider pursuing emergency room nursing in college. Emergency room nursing plays one of the key roles in a hospital setting. If you know nothing about it, worry not, as this article discusses all emergency room nursing.
What is emergency room nursing anyway?
Emergency room nursing is taking care of patients in an emergency room. An emergency room’s hectic setting calls for a different level of expertise than those needed for regular nurse employment.
When you visit an emergency room, you often have a medical emergency that must be treated immediately. In this position, nurses act swiftly to reduce discomfort and maintain a patient’s health.
Key responsibilities of an emergency room nursing
Emergency room nurses play very critical roles in the hospital. Here are the key responsibilities of emergency nursing;
- Triage
Emergency room nursing helps in prioritizing care depending on the condition of patients. Medical knowledge acquired before, attention to detail, and quick thinking help assess patients’ needs accordingly. As a nurse, you must obtain personal information and medical history and seek doctors’ evaluation for treating the patient.
- A Vital Signs Checkup
One of the emergency department nurse’s primary responsibilities is to record vital information. Throughout a patient’s treatment in the emergency room, nurses observe the vital signs, including the patient’s temperature, heart rate, and breathing. Hypertension is also checked using a blood pressure machine. Vital signs give nurses a bird’s-eye perspective of a patient’s status and warn them of changes that may need a doctor’s care.
- Drug Administration
After a doctor prescribes certain medication, a nurse administers it to a patient Occasionally, patients in the emergency room take medications throughout their stay in the emergency room.
Caregivers will get in-hospital medications from the E.R. physician for medications and verify regular medication listings with the patient’s family members or request the facility pharmacists to do so.
- Providing Medical Care
Emergency department nurses can assist with medical care for conditions ranging from kidney problems to throat infections and administering medication. As a component of the treatment process, the nurses may also support minor health operations, stabilize a patient, and assist the physician with anything from wound closure to care for critically ill patients.
- Assessing Patients
Nurses are in charge of monitoring the execution of a doctor’s advice, from ensuring that prescriptions are administered to verifying the outcome of prescribed screening procedures and their completion. When labour is short-handed, an emergency room nurse may be requested to transfer a patient to a clinical diagnosis, such as an x-ray, even though lab technologists are generally responsible for doing so.
Emergency room nurses are responsible for immediately informing the doctors if a patient’s condition worsens during their stay in the emergency room. They are also responsible for responding to requests from patients and their relatives for simple items like an extra bandage or a snack to keep the patient comfortable.
- Charting
Emergency room nurses must record all patients’ medical histories, contact details, current conditions, medications, and treatments and update the patient’s electronic health records during their stay. For other employees of the healthcare staff to respond appropriately during the patient’s examination and treatment, proper recording in the patient’s chart is essential. Effective and careful charting also shields hospitals and personnel from future legal liabilities.
- Discharge
A patient’s emergency department nurse prepares the discharge summaries when they are declared safe to depart the emergency room after treatment and do not need to be admitted to the hospital. The nurses also review it with the patients, their relatives, or caregivers and answer any concerns they might have.
As an emergency nurse, you should check the patient’s transfer from the emergency room, their final destination. You should also check if they are heading to a rehabilitation centre or an elderly home and any follow-up care suggestions and doctor appointments.
Emergency room nursing skills
E.R.’s nursing skills are the scientific, interpersonal, and managerial abilities required to function well as an emergency room nurse. Compared to other hospital settings, emergency departments are hectic, high-stress settings. Emergency room nurses must be highly qualified and respond to patient and medical team needs swiftly and effectively. Here are some important emergency room skills nurses should have;
- Clinical skills
Numerous medical disorders are managed in emergency rooms. Nurses must possess a solid basis in medical skills and be familiar with fundamental processes, such as:
- Taking body measurements of your height, body weight, and pulse rate, as well as your blood pressure
- Placing I.V.s
- Drawing blood
- Getting patients ready for procedures
- Providing Enhanced Cardiac Medical Assistance and Basic Life – supporting Telemetry
- Assertiveness
Sometimes, time becomes critical to the health of a patient. In such cases, Emergency room nurses must be assertive in stating what exactly the patients need. This may include communicating with other healthcare providers’ families, patients, and administrative workers.
- Flexibility
E.R. nurses are required to deal with a variety of physician and patient requests. You must be able to change tasks swiftly and adhere to suppliers’ constantly-changing requirements and directives.
- Multitasking
E.R. nurses have many duties that vie for their attention, which are crucial in an emergency. You ought to be able to handle multiple duties at once, such as transferring a patient while speaking with a doctor about the status of another patient.
- Time management skills
E.R. nurses need to be skilled at time management. Many tasks in a medical setting are urgent and demand prompt action. A big part of a nurse’s typical day is figuring out how long tasks are executed and how to schedule client demands.
- Interpersonal skills
Every day, emergency room nurses interact with a variety of individuals. You should be able to speak gently and successfully with various people. Patients and their loved ones frequently find themselves in precarious, unpleasant, and difficult situations. You ought to have kindness, empathy, patience, and compassion.
- Collaboration skills
Various professions and expertise are needed in the emergency room because it is the centre of medical activity. To choose the optimal course of therapy for patients, you must successfully collaborate with different people and departments.
Common conditions treated by emergency room nursing
Emergency room nurses deal with various illnesses, from throat infections to cardiac events. The role of pediatric emergency room nursing according to studies, involves treating the following;
- Respiratory infections
- Abdominal pains
- Suspensions and strains
- Superficial wounds
- Heart problems
Where emergency room nurses operate greatly impacts the illnesses they see most frequently. Hospitals in big cities are much more likely to treat severe instances like gunshot or internal injuries, but they also get people who are just looking for routine care and have less urgent issues.
Trauma wounds from car accidents or collisions with farm machinery are more common in rural regions. And no matter where you operate, everyone is seeing many more incidents nowadays. You must understand all ethical questions in emergency room nursing to handle all the issues in an emergency room.
The region of the world also matters. Since many snowbirds migrate to warmer areas to avoid the severe seasons in their hometowns, emergency rooms in southern states are much more likely to see conditions that afflict the aged, such as chest problems or fractures from falls.
Challenges of emergency room nursing
- High Anxiety
Some people may experience a lot of pressure due to the E.R.’s continuous diversity and excitement. A career in an E.R. can sometimes feel daunting, even for naturally quiet individuals. No matter what is happening around you, you must rest and maintain your composure if you want to succeed.
- Intensely Emotional
You will see a lot of suffering and tragedy in Emergency Room nursing. Many ERs see horrific violence, horrifying accidents, and childhood abuse victims. It can be emotionally exhausting to witness such occurrences. And when patients pass away before you can save them, that is doubly true. The finest E.R. nurses can maintain emotional stability amid other people’s pain, which is crucial because empathy is a necessary component of successful nursing.
- Continuous Motion
Some people may find continual mobility exhausting, even though the finest E.R. nurses like the quick, multifunctional work environment. You must be able to manage several tasks at once and work continuously without often stopping to collect your breath.
Except for any required rests, most E.R. nurses begin their shifts off quickly and don’t rest until the shift is through. Focus, endurance and a solid pair of shoes are necessary for success in such a setting.
How to become an emergency room nurse
The first stage is straightforward: you must get either a bachelor’s degree or an associate’s degree in Nursing. Both paths lead to R.N. careers, but you must choose which degree is ideal for your personal and professional goals. After receiving your nursing degree, you must pass exams to become a registered nurse.
Once you have obtained your full license, you can start your career-focused studies in emergency nursing. The key will be to learn all emergency room nursing guidelines and protocols. To gain relevant experience, consider working as a floater nurse in the emergency room of your facility or helping rescue teams.
You can also apply for a qualification from the Board of Accreditation for Emergency Nursing after gaining at least two years of relevant emergency experience. Although it’s not necessary to have this certification to work in an emergency room, it might give you an advantage over other applicants.
In a nutshell
Emergency room nursing involves caring for patients suffering from conditions requiring urgent treatment. To become an emergency nurse, you must have certain skills like collaboration, time management and interpersonal skills, among others.
Like any other career, you will face challenges like anxiety when operating in an emergency nursing room. This should not, however, limit you from pursuing emergency room nursing if you really admire the course.
If you need help handling emergency room nursing assignments or need any help in the sector, contact proscholarly.com. We have professionals who will help with any nursing needs.
