Tired of your current nursing practice and thinking of a change?
Do you have good evaluation skills?
Want something fast-paced, exciting, and highly challenging?
Or are you interested in reading about different areas of healthcare and what’s happening within specific practices?
Nonetheless, emergency care may be exactly what you’re looking for!
What is emergency care?
First aid is outpatient care that allows for the treatment of non-life-threatening injuries and illnesses. It can be a quick, sometimes demanding and exciting place to practice nursing.
Urgent care was designed to prevent non-urgent patients from going to the ER and to assist primary care providers who do not have extra time to see patients requiring same-day appointments.
Seen in urgent care for clients is less expensive and wait times are definitely less than in the ER.
Nurses can become fairly autonomous in this setting once they become familiar with the practices of each clinic and provider.
What does an emergency care practice look like?
Most emergency departments are located in outpatient clinics. However, it can also be in another area of ER known as the “Fast Track”.
The term emergency care refers to concerns such as minor trauma, fractures, lacerations, abscess/cyst incision and drainage, colds, flu, muscle strains/sprains, and a myriad of other complaints and/or procedures. means that it is for Does not require emergency or urgent care to save “life or limb”.
What skills do nurses need to practice in emergency medicine?
Below are some of the skills required, but not all.
- good assessment skills
- Nurses need to understand which body systems need evaluation and be able to do so with confidence.
- Document the assessment with accurate information. That is, lung sounds are reduced at the base. The rash is red, raised, and itchy. Tenderness and bruising at the site of injury to name a few.
- Ability to triage patients in order to provide the most appropriate care, anticipate their needs and predict the order in which they should be seen.
- What are your main complaints?
- How urgent is the need and in what order should the provider evaluate and see the patient?
- drip insertion
- A large-bore IV provides rapid access when moving to a rapid bolus of fluid in the case of ED or dehydrated patients.
- Initial dose of IV antibiotics for infection.
- examination and treatment
- Ability to draw blood for tests such as tick panels, as well as ad hoc blood draws.
- Understanding of ambulatory tests and the ability to predict which tests will be needed and to perform those tests before the healthcare provider sees the patient.
- Urine dips and cultures and susceptibility, streptococci, influenza, COVID-19 swabs, wound cultures.
- Knowledge of how to use orthopedic supplies such as short and long boots, post-surgical shoes, bandages for different types of wounds and skin conditions, and crutch training
- BLS/AED
- Ability to perform CPR and use an AED when a patient unexpectedly presents to urgent care for a life-threatening illness.
- patient education
Emergency nurses need to understand the types of care in this setting, instruct patients on how to use equipment, take prescribed medications, and general patient education about illness and injury, and reinforce those instructions. there is.
Most acute care clinics now use computer systems to document findings and treatments. Emergency care nurses should be familiar with how to use the system at their facility.
Occasionally, patients come to the clinic with chest pain or major trauma. The nurse should know how to contact her EMS on site.
After working with a large number of health care providers, nurses will be able to predict each provider’s practices and perform those assessments against that provider’s specific treatment modes.
Skill sets are the primary types of skills that emergency nurses learn and practice. Of course, every clinic is slightly different for each emergency medical venue and policy.
Whether you’re interested in getting into the field yourself, or simply want to learn more about another medical field, walk past an emergency medicine clinic or two and see what kind of work they do. I’m sure you’ve wondered if
About the author:
Elaine Enright, RN, BSN is a graduate of Emmanuel College in Boston, Massachusetts.
Her career spans over 35 years as a registered nurse with experience in education, medical surgery, emergency and emergency care. She is also the author of Continuing Education. Nursing CE CentralI also have expertise in case management and nursing management. During her teaching career, she attended Boston University Social Her Work School, Tufts Institute for Medical Education, Cape Her Cod Her Community Her College Nursing Program, Asabette Her Valley LPN Program, Fisher Her College has served as an adjunct professor at Elaine has been a speaker at several continuing education programs throughout her career that focus on managed care and case management.
