ER Nurses Blog

What a day! Every day in public health nursing is a new day with new challenges, new faces and loads of obstacles! Having come from LTC – it’s a whirlwind to say the least! After a Holiday and a Monday at that, I begin to wonder if I will ever see the bottom of my paperwork pile… probably not today. The phone rings and another patient need more medication. I place them on hold, just long enough time, that my provider asks me to check the vaccination record. The patient on the phone gives me her number and her pharmacy information – I give her a promise that I will speak with her Doctor and call her back. With that cleared up, I begin to getting the Childs vaccinations, first by checking the child’s name through the state registry. It shows that the child is due for her regular 6 month shots and is due for the flu vaccine as well. I step into the patient’s room and ask the young mother if she would like the flu vaccine. To which I get a puzzled look and an “I don’t kn

Continued from part one on understaffed and sometimes dangerous ERs in our country here . To pick up from where we left off.... Nurses associations are advocating to end violence against nurses. The Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals had a conference in early November, Massachusetts Nursing Association is one that has done a lot of work in raising awareness. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration office has issued guidelines for medical centers to address this challenge. However, these guidelines should become enforceable standards. The survey shows that hospitals with a zero tolerance workplace violence program have less than half the number of incidents of other medical centers that have no policy. In Massachusetts, a House representative and a senator have introduced an act requiring Health Care Employers to Develop and Implement Programs to Prevent Workplace Violence. 26 states now have more strict penalties for assaults on nurs

Seven Mondays in a Week: The Consequences of Society’s Decline in Civility Part 1 Would you look forward to work each day if you knew there was a possibility you would be verbally or physically abused? Emergency departments are experiencing an increase in use by the public. Hospitals are unable to keep up. An analysis of this use points to one unintended consequence of a non universal private health care system. The emergency department of a hospital is the only location in an overburdened health care system where any patient who shows up must be treated regardless of ability to pay. With state facilities and programs for mentally ill citizens, and those suffering drug addiction being eliminated these patients often end up in emergency wards. Visits to emergency departments(ED) for alcohol or drug related incidents are on the rise. Emergency departments are often overcrowded. Overcrowding is defined as all beds in use and the waiting room full for more than 6 hours a day, patients plac