Emergency Nurses

Introduction

Emergency nurses (ER Nurses) works in the emergency departments, this section of a health care facility provides rapid treatment to victims of sudden illness or trauma. They provide initial treatment to a broad range of illnesses and injuries, some of which require immediate attention because they may be life threatening. Emergency departments are also important entry points for patients who do not have other means to access medical care. Upon arrival in Emergency Department, the patients undergo brief examination, interviews and are categorized for ease determination of the nature and severity of their illness. Patients with serious illnesses are treated more quickly than those with less severe symptoms or injuries (Springhouse 97). Once the assessment is done and the patients are treated they are discharged, admitted to the hospital or stabilized and transferred to other hospitals for various reasons such as specialized treatment, decongestion of the hospital  or at the will of the patient.

Profession and duties of the nurse

Mostly patients are brought in by an ambulance or they come independently. Incases which the patient is brought in by an ambulance the ambulance crew communicates to the hospital the condition of the patient/patients as they transport them. It’s the duty of the ER Nurse to begin basic or advance life support measures in consultations with the emergency department physician depending on the condition described by the crew as they await the patient/patients (Proehl 120). Patients suffering from minor complaints can be handled by one nurse who will be able to sort the patients on bases of the ailment / injury severity and assign them most efficient and effective care resources. Patients whose condition needs specialized treatments are then referred by the nurse to the appropriate physician in order of medical urgency, not in order of arrival.

Qualifications and remunerations

An ER Nurse is practiced by nurses who have formal, post-secondary education and whose function in highly autonomous and specialized the nurses have knowledge on emergency medicine. They are registered nurses whose qualifications should be 2 years associate degree in nursing or completion of 4 years bachelor’s of science degree in nursing (BSN). Previously hospitals were requiring a nurse to have worked in ICU for at least one (1) year but due to shortage of nurses hospitals are hiring nurses directly from school to work in ICU and / or emergency rooms. The nurses are paid an average of $24.63 per hour and $51,230 annually the payment is pegged on qualifications and experience (BLS). Working hours depends on the hospital and whether the nurse wants overtime, but most of the nurses work for twelve (12) hour shifts for two days on and two days off, for about 40 to 48 hours in a week. ER Nurse Practitioners are needed in almost all hospitals to take care of emergency case such as accident’s or ailments. They play a very major role in health services provision this is a medical field which will be able to withstand test of time and changes which come with development of human kind because hospitals can’t operate without emergency department and neither can the department be merged with others and their services are offered to patients of all ages.

Career advancement and prospects

There are prospects of advancements in this field as the starters in this career who are Registered Nurse (RNs) start their career as nursing aid or licensed practical nurses who later go back to school to obtain a degree in the profession. With good performance and experience they are promoted to responsible positions. They are involved in management as head nurse, assistant unit managers or in even higher level of management such as directors or chief nurse these senior levels of management require a graduate in health service administration or nursing (Proehl 245). Their experience and expertise on health equip them with skills necessary even to work in companies such as pharmaceutical manufacturers, managed care organizations, insurance companies and other health planning and development organization others become qualified to serve as transport nurse on Airplanes, Ambulances or helicopters.

Daily life of an ER Nurse

The daily life of an ER Nurse is very busy and unpredictable. They are required to make decisions very fast on the next course of action to save lives of patients and diagnose properly because they work at the reception of patients who do not have an appointment and their aliments are different. In case of an accident which would involve many casualties most of the time the nurses are overwhelmed by large number of patients who can not even be taken care of by the facilities in the emergency rooms in such instances they stabilize the patient and transfer to other hospitals (Springhouse 159). They can not plan their day as how many patients they are to see in a day or the ailments which they shall handle this requires them to have a wide scope of medical care needed. The nurses are also always on call incase of emergency cases which would require more workload than the nurses who are on duty at that particular moment.

The nurses provide assessments of patients with potentially life threatening conditions and take care of them in an emergency situation. They handle complex and difficult situations, administer emergency procedures, operate medical machines and they are expected to act and think very fast. Most of the patients admitted are due to emergency cases such as accidents, suicide attempts or work related injuries some of whom would have suffered serious and life threatening physical injuries. Such injuries could easily degenerate to secondary complications such as shock, respiratory disorder and kidney failure if not taken care of immediately (Proehl 301). While on duty they admit such patients triage them and refer them to physician depending on severity of their aliments. Most of the ER Nurses I interviewed they don’t see themselves staying in this area because they termed it as a non expatriate area they preferred to work in specialized medical areas such as Neurosurgical Nursing, at ENT or midwifery sections among others.

Conclusion

Due to importance duties which the ER Nurses do in care of patient at the reception of emergency patients. Their role in medical field is promising to withstand change brought by human kind development. There are possibilities that operations of emergency departments will be upgraded to meet growing need of emergency cases due to change of living standards which are endangering human beings even more.

Work Cited

Springhouse (Ed.). Emergency Nursing Made Incredibly Easy. New York: Williams & Wilkins Lippincott. 2006

Proehl, Jean Emergency Nursing Procedures. Boston: Saunders, 2008

BLS. Occupational Employment & Wages. 2003. BLS <

http://www.bls.gov/oes/2003/may/oes291111.htm >