ED Nursing Archives – November 1, 2010
November 1, 2010
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Don't take your eyes off high-risk patients: ID sudden deterioration
(Editor's Note: This is a two-part series on keeping patients safe during lengthy waits in the ED. This month, we give practices to avoid missing a patient's deterioration in waiting areas, how to enlist the help of others in visualizing patients, and what to tell family members to watch for. Next month, we'll report on how to avoid blocked views of patients and which patients are at particularly high risk for sudden deterioration.) -
With elders, be cautious with fluid resuscitation
Aggressive fluid resuscitation, which normally would be used in younger trauma patients, potentially could do serious harm to an elder patient, warns Rhyan Weaver, RN, BSN, CEN, clinical supervisor in the ED at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, AZ. -
ED nurses focus on one set of orders at a time
Nurses in the Scottish Rite ED at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta were frustrated because they were constantly dealing with multiple sets of orders on multiple patients. -
Dramatically cut delays in review of an EKG
While the EKG is done immediately upon a chest pain patient's arrival at Huntsville (AL) Hospital, it still must be reviewed by the ED physician within five minutes. -
Don't overlook prescription drug abuse
Is your patient presenting with vague complaints of abdominal pain, flank pain or a history of renal stones, recurrent dislocations, or intentional trauma? Consider the possibility of pain medication abuse. (See story, below, on new CDC report on ED visits for non-medical use of pain medications.) -
Is your patient injured, intoxicated, or both?
After a night out with friends, a young man was found on the living room floor in the morning. His family assumed he was intoxicated, but after a period of time 911 was called.