Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Unsung heroes
Emergency nursing offers rewarding career, opportunity for growth
No one wants to see the inside of an emergency room or medical center, but few people avoid occasional visits to the ER. When such situations arise, a top-notch trauma team can make all the difference.
One of the first health care professionals a patient will encounter in the ER is an emergency nurse, who quickly assesses life-threatening problems and begins to solve them on the spot.
Although emergency nurses can work in hospital ERs, these nurses also may work for ambulance services, urgent-care centers or sports arenas, as well as in other high-stress situations.
ER nurses are registered nurses, or RNs, who work closely with doctors to help diagnose, stabilize and manage conditions. They also liaise between family members and other medical staff and educate patients about their conditions once an emergency situation is addressed.
Because ER nurses specialize in treating severely ill or injured patients or those in life-threatening situations, anyone considering a career in this field must be ready to adapt to many different situations.
In a single day, ER nurses may encounter children with broken bones, patients with acute stomach pains and people injured in motor vehicle accidents, among many other potential situations. Patients of all ages come to trauma centers, and prioritizing emergencies, or triage, is often part of an ER nurse’s job description.
An ER nurse’s day is frequently stressful and fast-paced. Some of the tasks to be expected, according to the nursing career resource Nurse Frontier, include the following:
First aid;
Suturing;
Intubation;
Bag valve mask ventilation;
Administering medicine;
Basic life support;
Advance cardiac life support; and
Transfusing blood.
Prospective ER nurses must complete a nursing degree or diploma program. The United States requires prospective ER nurses to pass the NCLEX-RN exam, which is administered by the National Council of State Boards.
According to Johnson & Johnson’s Discover Nursing (www.discovernursing.com), ER nurses are increasingly learning about tech, thanks to electronic medical records and point-of-care bar coding.
Today’s ER nurses have more responsibility than ever because of nursing shortages. That means there are plenty of opportunities to become leaders in the field, making the career a good choice for those who enjoy a challenge.