One of the best and selfless moves that a person can decide to take is making a choice to serve humanity, taking an oath to serve and protect lives, irrespective of their gender, race, economic or religious background. Becoming an Emergency Room Nurse or “ER” Nurse daily exposes you to challenges that makes you a great multitasker, a quick thinker and the ability to make decisions that could potentially save a life.
WHO IS AN EMERGENCY ROOM “ER” NURSE ?
Adrenaline pumping, uncertainties, thinking on your feet and swift life or death decisions.
Emergency nursing is a branch in the health care field of professional nursing. This is an area that focuses on the needs of patients who are specifically in need of prompt medical attention to prevent long-term uncomfortable life adjustments, requiring stabilized care and the minimization of pain.
They work in an emergency medical facility with a team that consists of doctors and physicians all with the major aim of providing urgent health care to patients. Emergency medicine although full of chaos, guarantees moments of connections with patients that cannot be found anywhere else in the health care system.
Journey To Becoming An Emergency Room “ER” NURSE.
1) Research for degree options:
With any other field of study, laying emphasis on the health care system research has an obvious important role to play as it helps in giving out of information, answering questions, clearing doubts and solidifying decisions. To become an emergency room ER nurse, you need to complete the bachelor’s degree program, associate degree program or the approved nursing degree program of the country you wish to study and work in.
2) Getting in nursing school :
It’s goes without saying, that there will be a lot of hard work that goes in to studying, especially in the business of saving lives. The bachelor’s program takes two years to complete while the associates program approximates two years for completion. The course work that you would study in school would usually include: physiology, chemistry, nutrition, behavioral science, psychology, patho -physiology and so on.
3) Getting Registered :
After the completion of either bachelor’s program for two years or associate program for four years. You are required to take the licensure exams, which is the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses ( NCLEX – RN ) other certifications may include Basic Life Support (BLS),Pediatric Advanced Life Support Technique (PALS) Trauma Nursing Core Course (TNCC) Certified Emergency Nurse Credential ( CEN) is a certification that is nationally accepted. A Nurse is certified when he/she is believed to have attained expertise that comes from learning and experience on the patient care. Before taking the CEN exams, an ER NURSE must have two (2) years experience as a Registered Nurse (RN). He / She also needs to have IV skills, advanced cardiac monitoring skills and so forth.
SKILL SETS
Becoming an emergency room ER NURSE, requires you possess certain skill sets but the most important are the ability to perform rapid assessments of patients during their initial stage of the acute illness and situations and keeping cool no matter what the situation entails.
Although, most of the qualities are not in- built, they are qualities that can be learned and conditioned for the benefits of patients ( The most important person). Personally, an ER nurse should be outgoing, open minded and approachable.
other skills especially in the ward, may include :
- High self-control
- Great observerational skills
- Fast Thinker
- Multitasker
- Good Communication and interpersonal skills.
Roles and Duties of an ER NURSE
- Work hand in hand with doctors to provide care for trauma patients.
- Observation, collection and documentation of patients data
- Response and assessment to emergencies and provide care for the patient
- Follow hospital rules and the Nursing code of conduct
- Administering prescribed medicine by doctors
- Develop a feasible plan for patient care
- Relay information of direction and instruction to patients family members.
Where do ER Nurse work
Emergency room ER nurses are found in the hospital settings in the emergency room triage centers, and trauma centers. They can also be employed in clinics, emergency response units, poison control centers, prisons and the military.
What do ER nurse do?
They are a lot of things that an ER nurse needs to do, to save the life of their patients. Some of them include :
- Starting an intravenous line,
- Administration of medication authorized by the doctors
- Transfusion of blood,
- Setting of broken bones,
- Delivering babies,
- Administering of first aid,
- Rescue breathing and the Cardio pulmonary resuscitation.
Settings for the departments for emergency nursing:
- Disaster setting : this is a setting that has experienced natural disaster such as earthquake hurricane ETC or a pandemic.
- Critical setting : locations with little to no resources.
- Urban areas: has a lot of resources
- Teaching hospitals: associated with a hospital and has many resources.
- Community setting: locations with moderate availability of resources
- Stand alone emergency department: not associated with hospitals and are usually limited.
- Rural setting: resources can be reached within a period of time.
The Sub divisions of the types of emergency departments:
- Trauma,
- Stroke,
- Cardiac,
- Burn,
- Neuro,
- Military,
- Pediatrics,
- Adults,
- Disaster response,
- Geriatric.
Employment and salary of ER Nurse
Unfortunately, with certain day to day activities, there is always a high rate of accident s, in homes, work sites, educational institutions and even in the hospitals. These are the reasons why there will always be a high demand for highly trained emergency room nurses to treat and attend to the needs of patient s. This is a stable job because they are always in demand no matter the location and there is a 12% increase of job growth for all registered nurses (2018 – 2028)
The annual salary ranges from $46,710 to $92,815, but on an average it is about $62, 010. The salary is also sometimes dependent on your place of residence.
Conclusion
It is not only about what you learn to get the job done, but what is instilled on you, and plays a role in your daily life, compassion, stamina, and attention to detail. Becoming an Emergency Nurse is a step in the right direction to saving the world remember “not all heroes wear a cape”
Also read What is a nurse navigator job?
References:
1) https://www.ena.org/membership/why-emergency-nursing
2) https://emedcert.com/blog/key-responsibilities-of-an-emergency-room-nurse
3) https://everynurse.org/careers/emergency-room-nurse/
4) https://www.registerednursing.org/specialty/emergency-room-nurse/
5) https://www.goodwin.edu/glossary/er-nurse
