Post ER

I recently got home from spending my first night in the ER - as a nurse...not a patient....because we've no doubt all had the middle of the night visits to the ER.... But this time I was on the other side of the curtain, so to speak.

One of the things I wanted to know going into this experience was: "What in the world takes so long????" It seems that each time I've had the misfortune to have to visit an ER, it seemed like it took FOREVER!!

Well, let me tell you it is NOT because the nurses are at the station exchanging gossip. What I saw was nurses running their butts off from one patient to another. And, as soon as one of their bays would open up they would have to fill it with another patient who was waiting to be seen. One interesting thing I noticed: the nurses could go through a list of patients waiting to be seen and "pick" the one they wanted to take. Hmmm.

Anyway, the nurses were ever-so-glad to be blessed with an eager student willing to do "fun" clinical tasks for them. I got my fill of doing EKGs, that's for sure. And, I got to do something else that really, really boosted my confidence level: I inserted 2 successful IVs!!!

I had been feeling somewhat unsure of myself with this skill. Since the hospital I do clinicals at has an IV team that handles all of the IVs on the floors, I only had one chance so far to insert an IV line - and it was unsuccessful. I was especially nervous about my lack of experience because the hospital I signed on to work at after graduation has no such IV team and the nurses insert all of their own IVs.

Well, I feel a lot more confident in my ability to at least get proficient with practice - given the opportunity.

One IV I inserted was into the metacarpal, the other in the cephalic. I found it much easier inserting it into the metacarpal, though, because I was able to flex the hand/fingers downward and it was a semi-straight shot in with the needle from there.

Fun, fun, fun. I also got to go to the cardiac cath lab with a patient and watch a cath being done. Very cool. And, I assisted with a central line insertion into the right subclavian.

ER nurses rock.