Posts

Showing posts from March, 2011

Loud Urogenital Symptoms

Here's another entry from a nurse who emailed us at ernurseyblog @ gmail and won gift certificate for a free set of scrubs. 20 year old male and his female companion come to the er. They are c/o of urogenital symptoms. (Translation: had unprotected, dirty sex and are now paying the price) They get their workup and appropriate antibiotics are prescribed. However, they will not leave without pain medication! It is explained to them multiple times by multiple staff that they are not getting their requested lortabs for an STD. Take tylenol, motrin, antibiotic as directed. (A bar of soap was also provided :>) Increase your fluids, bath, use a condom and you'll be fine. Male is getting agitated (did I mention his UDS was positive also?) and is now standing in the middle of the ER corridor screaming "You don't understand...I have a really small pee hole and it f...ing hurts to urinate!" The elderly gentleman in the next room started cracking up..as did staff! W
A nurse submitted article, part two of a two part series that started here.... .....I went back to my alcove to start charting around 2100. I felt good about that at least. I had already assessed both of my patients and had given nighttime medications. Did I mention this was my 3rd shift on the floor as a new travel nurse, and my 1st shift on my own? The charting system was new to me, so I was glad I had a chunk of time to devote to navigating the charting system. As I was in the midst of checking boxes and tabbing along, the alarm went off for my patient’s arterial line for a low reading. I looked at the tracing and wondered why it had dampened, when it was brand new that day. My patient still had an EKG tracing, but I went in to check on her to make sure she was okay. I should also note that my patient was in droplet isolation. I gowned up, put on my gloves and mask and started in to see that my patient was not the responsive, bright eyed, smiling patient that I had come into that sh

Nursing Instinct is Never Wrong

ER Nurse J sent in this story. BTW, all of the details have been changed, in fact, this is a mere anecdote of what could happen in the ER :D. It started with a feeling. You know, that gut feeling that nurses get when something is about to go wrong. They call it “nursing instinct”, but no matter the name, it’s never wrong. My first assessment was nothing out of the ordinary. My patient was on the ventilator for recurrent sepsis, and looking to improve. She responded to my questions appropriately, nodding her head yes when I asked if she felt warm, which correlated to her above 100 degree F temperature. I offered her a cool, wet washcloth for her forehead and a fan, for which she smiled. I asked if she had pain, to which she shook her head no. I continued on, listening to her chest and abdomen, checking her pulses, looking over her IVs, and finished by asking her if she was okay, to which she nodded yes. I informed her I would be right outside her room and would be in periodically to che

Free Ambulance Ride With Every Broken Nail

This blog post was submitted by a nurse who won a free gift card for her contribution. Working in the ER one of the funniest things that I remember is the day we received a call that the ambulance was bringing in an accident victim with more to follow on arrival. That usually means they are so busy working on the patient they are unable to call report. We set up our trauma bay and then got everything set up for any major trauma so those tools were close at hand. As the patient rolls in, Ginger, she's sitting up on the stretcher wailing holding a hand wrapped in what looks to be several towels applying pressure. Several of us enter the room while the ambulance crew asked to speak with the triage nurse outside. Ginger is crying hysterically and we are trying to calm her down and remove the towels to see what damage has been done. She continues to cry “my hand, my hand” as we get down to the last layer still no blood as we are trying to figure out what is wrong, We hear a laugh outsi