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Although gastric tube placement is commonly performed at the bedside by ED nurses, it can result in serious complications such as misplacement of the gastric tube into the pulmonary system, resulting in respiratory distress or death, according to a December 2010 Emergency Nursing Resource (ENR) on Gastric Tube Placement Verification, developed by the Emergency Nurses Association (ENA).
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Women may wait longer for ECGs than men, according to a new study. Jessica Zègre Hemsey, RN, PhD, the study's lead author, says she found the findings surprising because the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association gives acquiring an initial ECG within 10 minutes of arrival to the ED a Class I recommendation.
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A young girl experiencing hallucinations presents to an ED after being evaluated at another hospital, and twice referred for psychiatric care. "Her diagnosis was, in fact, a potentially life-threatening underlying cardiac disorder. Unfortunately, that missed diagnosis is not uncommon," says Deena Brecher, MSN, RN, ACNS-BC, CEN, CPEN, a clinical nurse specialist in the ED at Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, DE.
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Patients with shortness of breath are "one of the highest priority patients" for ED nurses because of their tendency to rapidly deteriorate, says Alexandra Penzias, RN, MEd, MSN, CEN, an ED educator at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, MA. "We perform a complete set of vital signs, oxygen saturation, and peak flow measurements at triage," she says.
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ED patients often don't understand important information in their discharge instructions, according to a new study, which can result in bad outcomes and needless repeat visits.
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A five-year-old boy with a fever and rash was about to be admitted to the in-patient pediatric unit at Children's Hospital Boston for dehydration and infection.
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When patients with shortness of breath received either a partial or a full standing order set, their median treatment time decreased by 40 minutes, according to a study done at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore.
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When a woman reported depression, migraines, and slurred speech over a period of months to Casie McMaster, RN, an ED nurse at St. Anthony's Hospital in St. Louis, MO, she reviewed her patient's home medications.
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If a patient's only complaint is dizziness, stroke may not be the first thing you think of, but patients with vertebral artery occlusion may present this way, says Karen Bergman, RN, neuroscience coordinator at Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo, MI.
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As an ED nurse was inserting a urinary catheter in a young man who had been critically injured in a motor vehicle collision, the trauma surgeon was watching closely.
