Tag: Emergency Department

How Doctors are Using Their Skills to Combat Congestive Heart

How Doctors are Using Their Skills to Combat Congestive Heart Failure

Congestive heart failure is an insidious opponent, possessing a slow onset that results in a patient often not even noticing they are having symptoms. Over time the patient will suffer from worsening dyspnea and edema that will eventually drive them to seek treatment, where they will discover that for whatever reason their heart is no longer able to function properly.

Heart failure occurs when the cells of the heart tissue are either destroyed or made non-functional due to another cardiac event, often secondary to ischemic heart disease or coronary artery disease. As a result, the heart is no longer able to pump the blood throughout the body properly; instead the blood pools, resulting in fluids being retained rather than excreted properly and oxygen starved organs being unable to function. The death of these cells is critical because, like brain cells, once the cells of the heart die the body is unable to reproduce them and restore full function to the heart. Congestive heart failure carries with it a high mortality rate, with over fifty percent of its victims dying within five years of being diagnosed. Doctors and researchers are able to use modern advancements in medicine to make the patient more comfortable and, in many cases, to provide them with a more favorable prognosis.

Many patients do not even discover that they have suffered heart failure until they are brought into the Emergency Department of their local hospital complaining of chest pain and difficulty breathing. Doctors will stabilize them there, giving them supplemental oxygen and beginning a course of medicinal treatment that will carry them out of the hospital.

Modern science has provided physicians with a wide array of methods with which to combat the damage done by congestive heart failure. Once oxygen is returned to an acceptable level a physician will usually administer a diuretic to stimulate the renal system to pull fluid out of circulation, relieving the edema and taking a great of stress off of the lungs, heart and other organs. This will also usually be accompanied by supplemental potassium, as the renal system will remove potassium along with the excess fluid and hypokalemia carries with it its own hazards.

A great deal of attention in the field of medicine has been focused on the body’s production of angiotensin II as it aggravates congestive heart failure. Angiotensin II is a substance produced by the body which raises blood pressure and causes the blood vessels to constrict, thereby forcing the heart to work much harder to pump blood throughout the body. An ACE inhibitor will often be administered to prevent the body from making angiotensin II, and an angiotensin receptor blocker is available to those who do not respond as desired to the ACE inhibitor. Many patients with heart problems are given nitroglycerin for this reason.

Along with medicine, research into the field of congestive heart failure is ongoing. The speculated use of stem cells, particularly embryonic stem cells, has opened a whole field of debate for possible treatment of heart failure in the science community. Patients with congestive heart failure were given some of their own stem cells in the heart via injection, and all reacted favorably. Scientists are unsure as to whether this is because the stem cells aid the body in growing new vessels or simply act as a lighthouse for the body’s natural healing mechanisms, drawing other cells to the site of the damage. Whichever the case may be, stem cells present a fascinating opportunity to finally find a means by which to restore heart function to patients who have suffered heart failure.

Modern science is providing a whole new world of treatment options to patients with congestive heart failure, and researchers are making new discoveries all the time. It is the hope of all of those in the medical field that one day heart failure will be another disease medicine has the answer to.

E. R. Nurses Getting Hurt

If you have even a passing interest in the topic of nurses, then you should take a look at the following information. This enlightening article presents some of the latest news on the subject of nurses.

Emergency nurses are starting to get hurt.

According to the Health Promoting Hospitals and Health Services International Conference held in Berlin this year, 98 percent of emergency room nurses in the Unites States reported verbal harassment and 67 percent reported physical violence.

While in Canada, 84 percent of the nurses in the emergency division witnessed verbal harassment once in every shift. While there are 90 percent of them claimed to experience verbal abuse at least once a week. In Australia, there are 70 percent of nurses who experience violence at pioneer five times a week.

Emergency room nurses are falling victims to evolvement violence in the emergency department of hospitals.

The Emergency Nurses Association conducted a study and 86 percent of all the ER nurses involved in the survey had some form of bloodshed committed inveigh them while they are on duty.

Forge ahead 2005, the Massachusetts Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that there are 4, 000 hospital employees assaulted space working in the ER. In the same year, ER doctors in Michigan reported that 28 percent has experienced physical assault while 75 percent received verbal assaults.

Patients themselves could be the perpetrators of this violence occurring in emergency departments. Intoxication and long falter in the waiting room are common things that talent fire up a patient.

Based on one of the largest studies made on the issue made on 2004 in Minnesota, patients committed almost all of the physical assaults and two – thirds of the verbal harassments.

Visitors as well as physicians and unalike staff members are responsible in that the other assaults and harassments. It is only plausible to receive aggression from the patients family members. If the patient was involved in a traumatic incident, his family members weary load levels could be very high and may overwhelm them.

The most common assaults against nurses could sometimes result into serious injury. Typical assaults would include spitting, hitting, kicking, hair pulling and attack using an object or weapon.

There would be incidents that would reaction into serious injury, an example would be an ER nurse who lost her baby when kicked by a patient in the stomach. Drug or alcohol, psychiatric conditions, neurological problems and a article of fuss are factors for such savage acts.

Between 1980 and 1990, there were 26 physicians, 18 registered nurses, 27 pharmacists, 17 nurses’ aides, and 18 other health care workers were killed on the job ( U. S. Department of Labor ). While there were 221 hospitals in America and Canada that reported 42 homicides, 1, 463 legitimate assaults, 67 sexual assaults, 165 robberies, and 47 armed robberies in 1995 according to the International Association for Healthcare Security and Safety.

There are also behavioural clues is a patient or visitor is likely to be abusive. Postures tend to be tensed while newspeak is load and can be threatening or insistent. Aggressors would constantly drop threats or plans of violence.

There are also certain diagnoses associated with violent behaviour like substance abuse, acute psychoses, acute the works brain syndrome, personality disorders and partial complex seizures.

The term is also relevant.

Incidents which occur on a black shift are more likely to produce rough patients. In a study conducted by University of California at Irvine, 31. 8 percent of violent incidents occurred between 11 p. m. and 7 a. m. while only 13. 3 percent of the patient volume was seen during these hours.

So what are the discernible doing about this?

Nursing organizations and unions are constantly working to draw the attention and educate the public on this issue. They are also lobbying for a legislation in increasing the penalties against perpetrators. Programs are being developed in healthcare institutions to address this issue. Security has been reinforced in hospitals to prevent the escalating violence in emergency departments.

Emergency nurses are the first one to give first aid to hurt and injured people. Now seems the time to help them halt getting hurt.
Hopefully the sections above have contributed to your understanding of nurses. Share your new understanding about nurses with others. They’ll thank you for it.

Emergency Room Nurses: Always on Duty

The following article lists some simple, informative tips that will help you have a better experience with nurses.

Nurses are responsible, along with other health care workers or professionals, for the treatment and caring for the injured and acutely or chronically ill people.

Nurses attend to varieties of life and death matters in different health care settings. Emergency room nurses or ICU nurses specialize in rapid assessment and treatment, over every second counts in emergency cases. A nurse in this setting administers medication and assists physicians attending emergency room tasks related to medical care. Emergency room nurses are also responsible for keeping compassionate records.

Emergency nursing is a specialty of the nursing profession. Emergency nurses should always be ready to treat wide variety of illnesses ranging from throat infections to heart attacks or victims of cool trauma. The types of patients that show up in hospital emergency departments often depend on things like the weather, highway accidents, industrial accidents, fires and hundreds of unfortunate events. Emergency nurses are expected to care for patients of all ages.

Emergency nurses should embody familiar with the policies of the facilities their working for, as well as procedures and protocols. The emergency department has a fast paced environment, as a nurse for this department, emergency nurses are needed to utilize their skills in time juice. Right does not only refer to prioritizing patients but further prioritizing the nurses time. Time management will enable nurses to confidently complete their duties. It is very momentous for an emergency room nurse to be able to do multitasking.

According to Nurses for Healthier Tomorrow ( NHT ), a coalition of nursing and health perplexity organizations, there are three major roles an emergency nurse should carry out:

( 1 ) Patient Care.

Emergency nurses should care through patients and families in hospital emergency departments, ambulances, helicopters, urgent care centers, cruise ships, sport arenas, industry, government, and anywhere someone could have a medical emergency.

( 2 ) Education.

Emergency nurses should provide education to the public through programs that speak for wellness and prevent injuries. Some of the educational programs such because alcohol awareness, child passenger safety, inspection safety, bicycle and helmet safety and domestic violence prevention are usually conducted by nurses.

( 3 ) Leadership and Research.

Emergency nurses also may work as administrators, managers, and researchers to improve emergency health care.

For all of the demands of emergency nursing, an emergency nurse should be prepared at all times to provide patient care for partly any setting. Some emergency nurses tend to specialize in trauma, pediatrics, geriatrics and injury prevention. Nurses are not only attendants in hospitals and clinics, they may also be involved in medical and nursing research.

Else important responsibility of the emergency room nurse is to continually be aware of their working environment; maintain proper supplies and appropriate medical equipments necessary in caring for the patients. Due to part of their job duties, emergency room nurses engage in educational activities to promote the nursing profession and keep them up to date on today’s advanced diagnostics, technologies, medical equipment and safety techniques.

Emergency nurses are very much in demand nowadays. Emergency nursing is a profession that requires adept know-how in caring for ill and injured people with speed, efficiency and leadership.

Doing all of these medical tasks while attending to other duties requires skill in multitasking. That is why emergency room nurses are always up on their toes, always on duty. With integrated the responsibilities and duties being performed by an emergency nurse it is needful not to lose the thing that made us go into this profession, compassion and love for life.
It never hurts to be well-informed with the latest on nurses. Compare what you’ve learned here to future articles so that you can stay alert to changes in the area of nurses.

E. R. Nurses Shorthanded

This interesting article addresses some of the key issues regarding nurses. A careful reading of this material could make a big difference in how you think about nurses.

You rushed a friend at 10: 00 in the evening to the nearest hospital due to unbearable chest pain. But at the emergency department, you were greeted with a number for patients waiting to be attended to. It took 30 minutes before your friend was taken care of by the emergency nurses.

You wonder, what is this shortage about emergency nurses? Arent there enough people who would like to catch care of sick people anymore?

According to a study conducted by the researchers from Cambridge Health Alliance as reported in Health Affairs, wait times went up an average of 4. 1 percent per year for all patients. Unfortunately for passion attack patients, the wait stretched to 11. 2 percent every space. Blacks, Hispanics, womanliness and patients in urban hospitals have longer wait times that others.

So how long exactly are these percentages? For patients diagnosed with heart attacks, the waiting time in 1997 was 8 minutes, but in 2004 it rose to 20 minutes. Patients who needed attention within 15 minutes, according to the nurses who evaluated them, have to wait 10 minutes back in 1997. But in 2004, it went up to 14 minutes. Emergency room wait in urban hospitals was 30 minutes. While non – urban hospital emergency room wait is within 15 minutes.

So why are the numbers increasing?

Emergency visits rose by 78 percent from 1995 to 2003. But the number of the emergency departments to accommodate this rise fell by 12. 4 percent from 1995 to 2003. The number of patients rushing in to the emergency department to entertain medical attention can be attributed to the fact that there is an increase of underinsured and uninsured patients. The aging American population is again a factor.

According to the EMTALA or the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, everyone has the conscientious to be seen and attended to in the emergency department, whether they are able to wages or not. This served as safeguard for the underinsured and uninsured citizens.

There were several accounts of patients dying in the emergency room waiting area because of late waits even with critical undiagnosed conditions. Recently, a 19 year old woman died on the Kings County Hospital Center Psychiatric Emergency Department floor. The incident was recorded by the hospitals camera. It took an hour before someone took notice of the woman, but the patient was contemporary dead. The hospital was said to be understaffed.

Different measures are being taken to resolve the crisis in emergency departments and avoid unfortunate events like this. Glaringly resolutions are being directed to the Congress. Some of the proposed means to be taken are:

1. Quickly approving the $50 million in extra funding for hospitals that provide uncompensated care to uninsured patients.

2. Significantly increase a funding for tragedy preparedness in hospitals.

3. Establish an agency in the Department of Health and Human Services for emergency and trauma care, and create a demonstration program to promote a coordinated regional approach to emergency care

Dr. Andre Wilson, Chief of Emergency Medicine in William Beaumont Hospital in No problem Oak in Michigan released a toss around on the effect of the straight back approach in reducing emergency room wait time. On this approach, the patients are immediately moved from the triage to an emergency room treatment area without going through the waiting room. There is need for the tolerant to go though with the little registration procedure and have the patient chart available immediately. With this procedure, the Beaumont Hospital was said to have the satisfaction rating from their patients increased. This also thought to increase the hospitals revenues.

Hospitals are taking measures on reducing the staffing shortages their emergency gob are increasing. Emergency room nurses are much in demand nowadays to cope with the increasing number of sick patients requiring medical attention. we could have as many emergency room nurses, but the key issue is how to yield health care for everybody available at all times with minimal amount of wait.
If you’ve picked some pointers about nurses that you can put into action, then by all means, do so. You won’t really be able to gain any benefits from your new knowledge if you don’t use it.