Working As An LPN Under Emergency Room NursesAs a licensed practical nurse, you can expect to be assigned in different sections in a hospital. Perhaps, one of the most challenging for an LPN is to be one of the assigned emergency room nurses where the most critical situations take place. If you fancy being an LPN among emergency room nurses, here are some things and responsibilities you can expect: Emergency room nurses work in a critical environment that is fast-paced and critical. If you are an LPN assigned as part of the Emergency Response Team under the supervision of emergency room nurses, you can expect to assist them in a number of critical procedures: Prioritizing or Triage In medical lingo, triage means sorting out or prioritizing procedures in a timely manner. The responsibility of determining what must be done first while waiting for the attending physician falls on the emergency room nurses. In determining what must be done first (i.e. attend to visible injuries or stabilize vital signs), a licensed practical nurse may be called on to check and monitor the patient's vital signs. In less critical cases like a scheduled operation, a licensed practical nurse may be called on to summarize the health condition of the patient. Basic Medical Aid In extreme cases like fires or road accidents where a number of people have been injured at the same time and rushed to the emergency room, emergency room nurses perform quick decisions that determine whose injuries are the most severe and must be attended to at once. Registered emergency room nurses often attend to critical injuries while a licensed practical nurse may be given the task of attending to less critical injuries that need minimum medical assistance. Emergency Room Assistance Emergency room nurses often multitask but sometimes, tasks can be one too many. In cases like this, they seek the assistance of a licensed practical nurse. Assistance may come in the form of compiling a patient's medical history, getting biological samples for lab testing, monitoring vital signs, and moving patients. At times, in the course of critical operations, a licensed practical nurse may be sent by the doctor to inform or update the relatives of the patient instead of one of the emergency room nurses. Monitoring Patients The work of a licensed practical nurse does not end after leaving the emergency room. Emergency room nurses often ask an LPN to monitor the patient's condition during recovery and note all changes and improvements so they, together with the doctor, can give the go signal for the patient's discharge. A licensed practical nurse can also take over some of emergency room nurses' job like informing the relatives of the patient on proper post-surgery care to speed up the recovery when the situation permits it. |