Nursing Scenario Analysis

The emergency department is a fast paced, busy, and vital to the hospital and community. There are patients of all ages coming into the ED. Every patient that comes in has a different diagnosis. Patients have various medical problems, for example, one patient could have the flu and one patient could have just been cut free from a car. When multiple patients are coming in there must be a way to sort through all the ciaos. A triage nurse determines which patient is most important and gets the sent back to a room to begin treatment. While in triage, each patient has vital signs checked. If indicated, they will also have an EKG. In triage at Jackson General ED, the nurse uses a checklist to organize patients, which determines who is priority. The triage algorithm Jackson General ED uses is “ESI”. This chart gives five levels of priority, one being first and five being last. A patient must need lifesaving interventions to be marked a one. To be assigned a two a patient must be high risk of needing lifesaving actions. The next two levels require resources to be implemented. For example, a three requires more than one resource to be used, for
At many times, patients come in unconscious or with altered mental status. Many patients come in with major injury or trauma. When trauma comes in the nursing staff has little information about the patient. In a lot of cases, the nurse has very little time to gather data about the patient coming into the ED. Nurses have to perform invasive procedures without consent. Some patients require CPR and later the staff find the patient was a DNR. Even though the outcome was not what should have been, the nurse has to reflect beneficence, what is in the best interest of the patient, do good for each patient in their care. Patients need advocates and somebody to promote the patients’ rights. These are just a few of the ethical and legal issues in the emergency