ED Nursing Archives – June 1, 2004
June 1, 2004
View Issues
-
New sepsis guidelines urge you to revamp care: Delays can cost lives
It was easy for ED nurses to recognize signs of septic shock in a 23-year-old woman who had just given birth at St. Clare Hospital in Lakewood, WA: She could barely speak, was hypotensive, hypothermic, and had a grayish coloring. -
Don’t harm patients with high-alert drugs
This is the first in a two-part series on high-alert medications in the ED. This month, we give specific practice changes to avoid errors. -
Switch to team nursing and boost staff morale
Do you want to increase satisfaction scores, improve patient care, and boost staff retention all in one shot? Consider switching to a team model of nursing. -
Are you missing serious illness in older patients?
An elderly woman presents with a chief complaint of constipation, with few symptoms of acute abdomen. Would you suspect appendicitis in this patient? -
Do you keep stroke patients waiting too long?
She may be an ideal candidate for thrombolytic therapy: A woman tells triage nurses that she first noticed symptoms exactly two hours ago. But by the time the patient is appropriately assessed, the window of time for eligibility to be treated with thrombolytics has passed. Has this occurred in your ED recently? Currently, only 2-5% of all eligible patients receive the thrombolytic drug t-PA, which was approved in 1996 for treatment of ischemic stroke within three hours of symptom onset. -
Do your staff members risk misidentifying patients?
If asked, How do you ensure that patients are not mistakenly identified before medications are given? during an accreditation survey, would every nurse in your ED be able to answer the question? -
Tip of the Month: Use a ‘trauma pack’ to improve care
Have you ever had to leave a trauma patients side to obtain needed supplies? At University of Utah Hospital Clinics in Salt Lake City, a trauma pack is used to keep the trauma nurse in the trauma bay with the patient.