ED Nursing Archives – March 1, 2011
March 1, 2011
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Does your staff provide conflicting, inadequate info to receiving units?
If you forget to tell an inpatient nurse that your ED patient has an allergy or was given a certain medication, the consequences could be dire. -
Be the one who first IDs patient's abnormal EKG
If an ED nurse at Christiana Care Health System in Wilmington, DE, suspects a patient could be having a myocardial infarction (MI), he or she does the EKG immediately at the bedside and interprets it on the spot, says Patricia L. Blair, RN, BSN, CEN, patient care coordinator. -
Comply: NPSG revised on med reconciliation
An elder woman brought by ambulance from an extended care facility was awake and oriented, but didn't know her medications or even the facility's name and phone number, recalls Donna Sparks, MSN, RN, CEN, director of emergency services at Baptist Hospital Miami (FL). -
Warning: ED is 'risky' for suicidal people
Minor respiratory complaints were all that a man reported to ED nurses at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, but in fact, he was suicidal. -
Pediatric Corner: Tough time obtaining venous access in a child?
Are you able to try sticking your patient more than once or twice? Can you wait for the best possible nurse to be free? Do you need to consider alternative access immediately? -
Get info you need without leaving patient's bedside
When John Provost, RN, started working in the ED in 2006 at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, AZ, he purchased a PalmPilot, then added some software with medical information. -
C. diff infections rise: Use these practices
Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) infections are on the rise, with an estimated 500,000 cases in hospitals and nursing homes each year and increased mortality rates, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).