Angels don’t always have wings
Angels are generally thought of as having wings and appear quietly, but on October 1, 2017, hundreds of angels descended…
emergency department
Astute assessment prevents paralysis
What seems like a simple pulled muscle to a shipping clerk turns out to be cauda equina syndrome, a potentially paralyzing injury that warrants immediate surgery.
Be prepared for anything
Hurry up and wait. It’s the expression used in the emergency department (ED) to explain the frustration patients experience waiting…
Care, not chaos
A new document created by ANA and other groups delineates emergency care principles for psychiatric patients.
Drifting in the sea of an emergency department
A few years ago my wife came home and told me her car was stalling. I knew this was impossible,…
ED nurses continue to be victims of workplace violence according to new report
The latest data from the “Emergency Department Violence Surveillance Study,” an ongoing survey study from the Emergency Nurses Association (ENA),…
Education improves ED care of children with behavioral special needs
A study in the Journal of Emergency Nursing reports that providing an education module improved the care of children with…
Emergency nursing: A specialty unlike any other
The president of the Emergency Nurses Association tells why she’s proud to be an emergency nurse.
Failure is not an option…or is it?
As a soldier, I arrived in Iraq in February 2004. The trip was exhausting but ended with the most spectacular…
First-day jitters
Thoughts crash in my mind, like a storm brewing in an endless sea of desolation fueled by anxiety and fear.…
Harold & Bill: An enduring portrait of another era
In 1971, I was attending nursing school and working as an emergency department (ED) orderly. One day, two elderly men…
Helping hands of nurses
In the Army I learned what it meant to never give up as well as what it meant to succeed.…
How do you look?
Recently, I rushed to the emergency department (ED) at my local hospital to meet a relative who’d been taken there…
Long ED wait linked to more adverse outcomes
According to a study published online by the British Medical Journal, longer waiting times in the ED are associated with…
My First Day in the ED
Note: This article was written before Kenneth graduated from nursing school. My first experience in an emergency department (ED) setting…
Nearly half of U.S. EDs overcrowded
A HealthLeaders Media Intelligence Report survey of healthcare leaders in the United States found that 46% of respondents say their…
Putting an end to patient overcrowding
Serious patient-flow problems call for more than just quick fixes. In some facilities, the culture must be transformed before patient bottlenecks can be banished. Read about one hospital’s system-wide cure for its throughput blues.
Reducing ambulance diversions without compromising care
How one community hospital dealt with the twin problems of a saturated emergency department and ambulance diversions.
Researchers Explore Ways to Curb ED Violence
Experts say registered nurses who work in hospital emergency departments are at greater risk of violence from patients than nurses in other specialties.
So you want to be an emergency nurse?
How to get going in this exciting specialty.
Sometimes healing requires a “miracle”
I am not a religious man, although I have a system of beliefs. I do not always share my feelings…
Study: ED charges vary widely
Authors of a study published by PLoS ONE found wide variations in emergency department (ED) charges in patients who paid…
Study: Functional problems common in ED elderly
Functional problems affect most older patients who go to the ED, according to “Profiles of Older Patients in the Emergency…
Taking the ICU to the Patient
How one rapid response team prevents cardiac arrest and provides other life-saving benefits outside the ICU.
The down and dirty of triage acuity scales
An unexpected fall from a ladder, a motor vehicle accident, a sudden onset of acute chest pain…these are merely a…
The freeing force of laughter
By reciting wacky dialogue from a scene in a Monty Python movie, Mary Delisle, RN, interrupted the negative thought patterns of a patient mired in dread and dispair.
The thin white line: Are we doing enough to prevent violence against nurses?
In 1976, Dallas police officer Robert Wood was shot and killed during a routine traffic violation stop. For 12 years,…
Turning the tide in a hypertensive emergency
When a patient’s blood pressure goes stratospheric, the first priority is to check for signs of organ damage.
Website traffic may help predict ED visits
A study in Annals of Emergency Medicine reported that the number visits to the Stockholm Health Care Guide (a website…
What’s a rapid triage assessment?
Five patients arrive simultaneously into the emergency department (ED) waiting room. Who will you see first? Who will go straight…
When it rains, it pours
Murphy’s Law says that if something can go wrong, it will. There is nothing to prepare an individual for the…
