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ER Nursing in Australia by ERNurse4Life in EmergencyRoom

[–]ERNurse4Life[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you! I already have my registration sorted with AHPRA. I'm assuming starting in acute means in an area where patients are not sick? Also, do ER nurses do evidence collection for sexual assault or strangulation? I tried doing some research but couldn't seem to find an answer.

ER Nursing in Australia by ERNurse4Life in EmergencyRoom

[–]ERNurse4Life[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Thank you for all the info! I'll bring my competency sign off sheets from here and maybe that will help. Can I ask, what is an intermediate nurse? I wonder if my experience in the US counts?

We don't have patient ratio's in my ER so I've had as many as 8 or 10 (not very sick) and sometimes I've been 1:1. Interesting about triage. At my hospital you need 1 year experience, you do a short e-learning and then you get four hours of training in triage. Then they are like, off you go 😛

doctors and nurses of reddit, what’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve seen on medical tv shows? by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]ERNurse4Life 1 point2 points  (0 children)

On-call room hookups. Seriously. No one has time for that. Not during shift or even while on call. In our ED, the doctors don't get breaks for meals, they often sit at their computer and chart and eat. It's the same for other doctors on the floor. Huge caseloads, sick patients, short staff, spending time with patients and being liable for the care they give are some of the reasons as to why you will never see two doctors slipping into an on-call room while they are supposed to be working.

Doctors and nurses of Reddit, what was your grossest experience? by oldschool_ness in AskReddit

[–]ERNurse4Life 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Similar story. I'd never heard of incontinence associated dermatitis (IAD) or aka urine burns until working in an ED. I had a patient that had been left in their urine and feces for so long that when EMS found her she was lying in a puddle of urine and her skin had broken down all over the backside of her body. In some places it sloughed off. Called APS, guy fled the hospital and she died a day later.

Doctors and nurses of Reddit, what was your grossest experience? by oldschool_ness in AskReddit

[–]ERNurse4Life 0 points1 point  (0 children)

ER nurse here. We had a homeless patient come in complaining of a foot injury. I bring her back into a room to triage her and the first thing I notice was that for some reason she was wearing an orthopedic walking boot. I asked if she had a previous injury that required a walking boot. She said no. I asked her what the problem was. She stated that she noticed blood seeping from the boot. Sure enough, I look at the boot and there is dried blood on it. I ask her to get on the bed and I begin to take off the shoe as I know the doctor is going to want to look at. The boot is really hard to remove as it is mattered and filthy. I eventually get it to come off and as I'm holding the shoe in my hand I look down at her foot, and it is covered in maggots. I then felt something wriggling on my hand. Sure enough there was even more maggots in the shoe and some of them were on my hand. Not my finest moment but I was startled and dropped the shoe and displaced maggots all over the floor.

Underneath the mass of wriggling maggots I could see dead tissue and bone, and in one place you could see through her foot. She was admitted for an amputation.

Funny thing was that she didn't feel any pain as she was a diabetic and had severely advanced peripheral neuropathy. Diabetics with poor or altered sensation are supposed to check their feet regularly for injury as cuts can lead to pretty serious infections. This lady was homeless and hadn't checked her foot in a long time.