Emergency Nursing
Working in the fast-moving environment of a hospital's emergency department, the Emergency Nurse is considered to be at "the front line" of patient care. Emergency Nurses face many challenges on a day to day basis; working as part of a team evaluating and treating patients who have suffered a minor or major trauma, prioritizing the urgency of their care and providing emotional support to the patient and their family.
Because they are treating and evaluating patients in the emergency or critical phase of their illness or injury, Emergency Nurses need to have a broad set of skills, to be familiar with a range of illnesses and be able to 'think on the run'. The types of injuries and illnesses that Emergency Nurses deal with are as diverse as the people they are treating. One minute it could be a person who has been involved in a major car accident, the next it could be an elderly person with a broken hip or a sick child with fever.
In a typical day, an Emergency Nurse could be responsible for resuscitating patients, triaging and treating less urgent patients, providing care and treatment of their injuries or illnesses and providing the evaluation and support needed for a patient to return home. Emergency Nurses can be members of disaster teams carrying out rescues or assisting at the scene of a major car accident or disaster.
An Emergency Nurse needs to act with a high degree of autonomy and have the ability to initiate treatment with limited direction while at the same time educating and supporting the patient and their family.