ER Etiquette

[fiznat]

When you give a report, make it clear and concise-- usually the latter being the most important. ED nurses are SO busy, they rarely have a lot of time to sit down and hear what you found on every detail of your assessment. As long as its not a major trauma or medical, give them the highlights, give them the paperwork, perhaps tell a joke, and get the heck out of their way. As far as they are concerned, you are just bringing them more work to do. Do it professionally, and do it quickly- thats really all that matters IMO.

[mediccjh]

Be nice to them, and for the most part they will be nice to you back.

And if you have a patient and no one will acknowledge you, jumping up and down, doing handstands screaming I HAVE A HAMSTER IN MY ARSE will usually grab their attention.

We get along great with the night shift ER staff in my neck of the woods.

[Asysin2leads]

Nurses are like any people, and you get the good ones and the bad ones. Don't confuse the cute ones with the good ones, its so easy to do.

Try not to flirt too much, you're not God's gift to women, I talked to to him this morning and he assured me I'm the only one. Be friendly, if a nurse digs you, chat her up on your own time, and if you can't get her to go out with you without the uniform, you are very very lame.

I like being friendly with the nurses, but I start to reach for the red bag when everyone is so buddy buddy chummy and stuff. I come to work to do my job, I don't go to work for social interaction. I've offered to do a food or coffee run here and there, but that's only because I have a truck and they're cooped up and I only think its courteous. Bringing chocolate sounds dangerously close to "Bribing the pretty girls so they'll talk to me" land, and again, don't be that guy.

Professionally, bring a patient, have a decent report, do appropriate treatment and don't be a moron, and everything should go well. You'll have the Nurse Ratchet and the Nurseferatu types here and there, usually they have serious emotional problems that are easy to pick out and exploit if they give you a hard time. Ask them how they're ex-husband is doing now that he ran off with the cheerleader. They love that.

Unless you work around me, at least your nurse will usually have a working command of the English language, so count yourself lucky. Nothing is more frustrating than trying to give a run down on a post cardiac arrest in pidgin English/Mandarin/Cantonese/Spanish/Urdu/Swahilli.

The most drastic measure you can do if you are being ignored in triage is to break rank and find the attending physician. You really shouldn't do this unless its an absolute emergency (I.e., pt. turning blue, heart rate very low and getting lower or very high and getting higher), it gets you attention quickly, but it also makes the triage nurse look very bad and gets the doc mad at her, and we like peace and love and happy ER's, not docs yelling at nurses yelling at us ER's. That being said there have been one or two times I've actually had to do that.

[PRPGfirerescuetech]

Be nice to them.

Be understanding that their job sucks too.

Be competent.

...and you will be fine.

[becksdad]

Sometimes I can't just keep my mouth shut, so here goes a very thinly disguised attempt at self-explanation. It is so easy to lose intention and inflection through the written word sometimes. Please, do not think that I advocate "bribery" or any other means of achieving an ulterior motive. Asys is right, using a uniform, a badge, or gifts to further personal goals is sleazy at best, and will usually be seen for what it is.

However, with a long standing professional relationship, decent gestures are usually seen for what they truly are also. Someone here said, "realize their job sucks too". When, in the course of your interactions, a simple gesture can communicate that you realize someone is stressed, and stuck, with no light at the end of the tunnel, there is no reason not to demonstrate goodwill. It is simply recognition of your common condition.

Besides, I'm too damn old and fat for most of these nurses anyway. And I'm very happily married with 2 nearly grown kids, too. God did tell me a long time ago that I wasn't His gift to women. But He made up for that fact by making my wife, Lori, His gift to me.

[Timmy]

Don’t drop the 02 bottle so it brakes and goes flying across the A&E floor.

Be nice to the clinical placement kid!

Don’t drive into the ambulance bay with the siren on.

I agree with bushy, don’t eat any of the A&E staffs lunch! I know from personal experience lol.

Don’t flirt with the overweight nurses, trying to be nice. They take what they can get!

Don’t bash the stretcher through the doors and make a big scene like ER. It’s a hospital be quiet lol!

Make handovers short, sharp and to the point.

Don’t coming running into A&E shouting “I need some help” everyone knows you’ve got a bad patient. Deal with it.

Don’t talk about the patients bad points. Eg, “good they stick” you never know were the family is!

Finally, don’t talk about medical stuff the time!!! People’s lives don’t revolve around medical stuff. Most people enjoy a change of conversation.

[Michael]

“good they stick”

Whatziss please.

[Asysin2leads]

One last thing to all the young EMS providers out there with self esteem issues. Remember, if a girl will fall all over herself fawning simply because a man is wearing big pants, boots, and suspenders, she's really not worth your time anyway, so don't get jealous. Yeah, you heard me, any girl who is willing to go out with a guy because he wears turn out gear is one you can give a miss. Keep being yourself and find someone decent.

[AnthonyM83]

Follow-up Question:

Is it appropriate for an EMT to stay in the trauma room when they start working on a patient you brought in?

I had my first trauma yesterday (Shotgun pellet to pt's face) and they had a room full of doctors, residents, and misc. waiting. The FFmedic stayed in for awhile, but I stepped out after patient transfer because I didn't know if it was appropriate. Do people mind if the EMT steps to the corner and watches awhile for educational purposes?

During my ride-alongs in a different part of the state, the ambulance medic said we could stay to watch medical, but I don't want to assume it's the same everywhere. I'll ask around at my company, but wondering how others worked.

[Timmy]

I don’t see a problem with it. Standing in the corner is all good. As long as you don’t get in the way and leave when your asked to. Ohh and if your partner leaves, go with them lol.