ED Nursing articles from April 2003

ED Nursing archives from April 2003

Are you ready for the newest `club drug' overdoses? Here are life-saving tips: you may be surprised at how patients present in your ED.
April 1, 2003... Rapid down, rapid up, without any emergence phenomena. This is the scenario that many EDs are facing with a club drug, gamma hydroxyl butyrate (GHB), also known as "Liquid X." ED visits related to GHB, ketamine (commonly called "Special K" or...

Are you using BNP testing for heart failure patients? If not, you face liability risks, experts warn.(B-type natriuretic peptide)
April 1, 2003... If congestive heart failure (CHF) is misdiagnosed in your ED and the B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) test was not available, you could face increased liability risks, according to some cardiovascular experts. Consider this example of...

Check mental status or risk missing problems.
April 1, 2003... When a 57-year-old man walked into the ED at North Broward Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale, FL, with slurred speech and left facial drooping, his wife told nurses that the symptoms had started about 30 minutes earlier. "We immediately...

Warning: JCAHO wants to see meningitis strategies.
April 1, 2003... When the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations looked at delays in treatment, 23 of 29 ED-related cases involved misdiagnosis, and meningitis was missed in seven of these cases, according to a Sentinel Event Alert. (1)...

Use these tips to prevent weight-based drug errors. .(Pediatric Corner)
April 1, 2003... A young girl of about 6 or 7 years old came to the ED at Northwest Community Hospital saying she felt weak. "She was mildly tachycardic, but otherwise did not look bad," recalls Barbara Weintraub, RN, MSN, MPH, CEN, the facility's...

New tool will change the way you staff your ED.(Pediatric Corner)(The ENA Staffing Best Practices Tool and Guidelines)
April 1, 2003... A new tool could change the way EDs nationwide are staffed. In 2001, ENA formed a task force to develop an easy to use, evidence-based tool to determine realistic nurse staffing in EDs, reports Joanne Ingalls McKay, RN, MSN, CEN, principal...

Domestic violence screening and referral can be effective.
April 1, 2003... Ann Emerg Med 2002; 40:485-492. Interventions in the ED can have a significant impact on whether domestic violence victims receive ongoing community-based services, says this study from State University of New York at Buffalo. During...

Pediatric worksheet.
April 1, 2003... Pediatric Worksheet Patient Name: Age: 2 years 3 months 2 weeks Allergies Allergy No Latex Allergy No Known Drug Allergies. Emergency Drugs Atropine 0.14-0.28...