Tag: Emergency Department

Warning: Hazards of Being an E. R. Nurse

When you think about nurses, what do you think of first? Which aspects of nurses are important, which are essential, and which ones can you take or leave? You be the judge.

Emergency nursing is a exceptional field of the nursing profession. In this field, nurses are equipped and trained to deal with patients in critical phase of their illness and injury. Emergency room nurses are capable of treating patients in this phase adrift department or complete diagnosis.

Emergency room nurses are used to fast paced environment. Thanks to the emergency department of a hospital, is usually overcrowded emergency room nurses can be seen multitasking to balance and point up patients and their time. How dangerous is positive to be working in a hospital?

With increasing reports of emergency component violence, emergency nurses are placed among police officers and other peace officers. The Massachusetts Bureau of Labor Statistics reported more than 4. 000 health care professionals to experience verbal and physical assault while working in the ER ( 2005 ).

Different steps are being undertaken to address the escalating umber of violence experienced by emergency room staff. Legislations in increasing the penalty being perpetrators are awaiting decision from the Assembly. Various programs and trainings to conclude violence are commencing in hospitals and other health care institutions.

So what else is dangerous about being an emergency nurse?

According to the International Hazard Datasheets on Occupation through released by the International Labour Organization, there are seven main dangers emergency nurses can be exposed to.

1. Emergency room nurses, as part of their responsibilities; cleans, disinfects and sterilize medical equipment. They may be exposed to agents that may damage the chicamin, mucous membranes and respiratory skeleton.

2. Emergency room nurses can also be alarming to anesthetic gases, drugs and radiation.

3. Emergency room nurses may be injured by shard objects like needles, blades and other similar objects.

4. They may contact with hot surfaces, faulty electrical equipment and may cause skin burns.

5. Sick patients in the emergency room present a risk of infection from body fluids.

6. Emergency room nurses may suffer from musculoskeletal problems and back pains due to handling heavy patients. Continuous work while standing and walking may cause fatigue and leg problems.

7. Emergency room nurses further may suffer from stress and burnout caused by shift and night work and by incomparable psychological and organization factors.

The Emergency Nurses Association recognizes the increasing number of emergency nurses experiencing stress. The emergency care environment can be very stressful and physically and emotionally traumatic for the health care workers and nurses.

ENA recognizes the following contributing factors in the increasing stress levels of emergency room nurses.

1. Queasy incidents that can cause strong emotion and may interfere with the ability to perform the duties. Incidents like close with casualties, disasters, unexpected death of a child or co – worker can be attributing factors.

2. Prolonged term demands burden also be a stressor. Stretched work hours, job insecurity, poor communication and an increased potential for a workplace power dance under this factor.

ENA sees that unresolved issue of stress can result into absenteeism, sleep disorders, burn out, emotional difficulties and health problems.

Whence how can these repercussions be avoided?

International Labor Grouping ( ILO ) provided several pointers to keep the emergency department safe owing to the emergency room health workers. Nurses should acknowledge with all safety instructions and bring periodic inspection of electrical medical equipment. Keeping all passages clearly visible and clear is also another tip. Following appropriate procedures in infection restraint and handling and disposing sharp objects is necessary.

To resolve the stress emergency nurses are experiencing, ENA supports the development and utilization of critical incident stress management. ENA also supports the use of individualizing stress management strategies like relaxation, meditation, exercise, group therapy, guided imagery, massage or humor therapy.

ENA also recognizes the impact of workplace violence and the need for a tack which would include education, prevention, appropriate dream measures, identification of incidents, reporting and protocols.

Emergency nurses have a special rewarding job and at the same a dangerous one. These are all the sacrifices they have to put up the serve the people.
Knowing enough about nurses to make solid, informed choices cuts down on the fear factor. If you apply what you’ve just learned about nurses, you should have nothing to worry about.

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.