Rural hospital Freakouts!

[systemlord]

I am not here to rag on nurses or belittle them in any way! ( well maybe a little ) Sometimes I work in the ED in a small rural hospital just to help the staff out. The EMS crew lives in a building adjacent to the hospital so we are 1 min away from the ED! I am not sure how they train RN's and how they keep their skills up and such but what ever! A couple of weeks ago on a Friday night while I was channel surfing on the TV my radio goes off! It was like.......brrrbewbrbb BARRYYY!! brww then static. Barry is my supervisor plus medic who I work with. I think nothing of it...just the nurses keying the mic on the radio again. Then 3 minutes we get toned out to the hospital! I walk into the ER several minutes later and see a scene of chaos and nurses running over each other ( an LPN and RN ) On the hospital bed lies a groggy woman who is obviously pregnant with her husband right by her side and 2 other woman! As I stared in amazement at this scene the RN is like " where is Barry? " I am like..he is coming! By the way what is going on? So the story goes that this woman who is 9 months pregnant and who's due date was yesterday had a seizure at home and then one again at the entrance of the hospital! So that why she looked a little groggy! They had her on NRB 15lpm! So then we went to work and put an iv into her and pushed some mag sulfate and off we went to hospital 160 km away and straight into the OR were she was intubated and ready to be operated on! This is not the first time that the nurses have freaked at something that really is not a true emergency! It is interesting to work near in hospital...Hopefully I have posted this in the right area! Cheers!

[Ace844]

How is a seizing gravid overdue Female PATIENT NOT AN EMERGENCY!?!?!?!?!?!!?

[Scaramedic]

Especially with a transport of a 100 miles?

Peace,

Marty

:joker:

[chbare]

Systemlord, not all Nurses panic in an emergency. I work in a rural ER and I can honestly say that the nurses and EMT's that I work with are top notch. I think that perhaps training and regular practice would help rectify the problem. Nursing school education focuses on a very broad range of knowledge, theory, and patient care techniques. I would not expect an entry level nurse or an untrained nurse to step into an emergency like this and function perfectly. Just like I would not expect an entry level paramedic to assess and treat an infected stage III decub without additional education. Nursing is like any other area of medicine, you must practice and continuously keep your skills and techniques up.

Take care,

chbare.

[Ridryder 911]

Oh, how embarrassing! To make fun or poke fun at someone only to be the one that truly, was the butt of the joke! Eclampsia is a life threatening emergency, and can cause fatality in the baby and mother.... uh, before I would talk about how they were geeking since they had 2 patients in critical condition, I might learn the old saying....."better to keep thy mouth shut and be thought as a fool, then to open it and remove all doubts ".......

If you are going to criticize or sideline quarterback emergency medicine, you might want to know basic medicine. Like Chbare described, most of the rural nurses have a diverse background. These are the ones I prefer in the helo... they usually can handle any sh*t handed to them....

R/r 911

[MedicMal]

Well said Rid!!!

MedicMal

[AZCEP]

Careful your audience when you start throwing around how much you know.

Some departments, prehospital included, can be quite entertaining to watch. The fact that they called for your assistance, does not in any way indicate they did not know what they were dealing with. Seeing how you didn't consider the causes of this patient's presentation indicates neither did you.

I must ask, why no air transport? The drive time alone would have been a pucker factor of about 12 with this situation.

[flightmedic608]

System, I was going to post a link to an OG/GYN website, but I thought that maybe you should research this medical issue on your own. To think that an eclamptic patient is not a true emergency, shows clearly that you do not understand the nature of this disease process. Before you make posts like this one....ensure that you completely understand the etiology of the disease process....and its mortality on gravid patients.

[Ace844]

This Seems to be pandemic today

[Rezq304]

How is a seizing gravid overdue Female PATIENT NOT AN EMERGENCY!?!?!?!?!?!!?

I was wondering the same thing myself Ace. :shock: