ED Nursing 2004-09-01

New myocardial infarction guidelines will dramatically change your practice

Are all your myocardial infarction (MI) patients with ST-segment elevation (STEMI) treated with door-to-needle time within 30 minutes and door-to-balloon time within 90 minutes? And are you giving serial electrocardiograms (ECGs) to symptomatic patients with nondiagnostic ECGs every five to 10 minutes?

Do you know how to care for adults with seizures?

Have you recently held down a flailing, seizing patient to prevent injury, doing your best to calm frantic family members while trying to find out what caused the seizure and determining what interventions are needed? These are the multiple challenges of caring for seizure patients as an ED nurse, says Lara Merana-Bailey, RN, MSN, ED educator at Hartford (CT) Hospital.

You should take these steps to care for seizure patients

The following steps are taken for seizure patients who present to the ED at St. Josephs Hospital & Medical Center in Phoenix.

Is your restraint use too high? Try patient advocates

This is the second of a two-part series on psychiatric patients in the ED. This month, we explain how psychiatric advocates can decrease use of restraints, and a related story on p. 127 gives effective ways to avoid placing patients in restraint. Last month, we covered ways to improve care, ensure safety, and maintain throughput.

EDs can do these 3 things to avoid use of restraints

When restraints are needed, its a dangerous moment in the ED that puts the nurse and patient at risk for serious injury. For many EDs, the number of dangerous moments is rising as the number of psychiatric patients increases dramatically.

Ready for flu season? Follow new guidelines

Its that time of year again: Around this month, you can expect numbers of flu patients to steadily increase. This year, youll need to comply with new flu guidelines from the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which call for free, on-site influenza vaccinations to all ED staff, including night and weekend staff, beginning in October of each year.

How to stop the spread of flu in your department

The Bethesda, MD-based National Foundation of Infectious Diseases recommends that EDs implement an aggressive year-round infection control program. To reduce exposure to flu in your ED, use the following effective strategies.

Cost-Saving Tip: Save reimbursement costs for lost patient property

Is your ED too often paying out hundreds or thousands of dollars for lost patient property? That was the case at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where 300 incidents occurred in a single year.

Web Alert: Site gives free tools to improve care of children

Its a tool that is a common sight in most EDs, but is often used incorrectly: The Broselow Emergency Tape. The tape is part of a system that assigns children to color zones based on a single length or weight measurement, which enables access to appropriate pre-calculated medication dosing and formulations and pre-determined equipment sizes necessary in the ED.

Audio conference helps protect hospitals’ tax-exempt status

ED Nursing Archives – September 1, 2004

September 1, 2004