As a medical practitioner, you don’t make decisions alone even when you are equipped with skills and qualifications because you have protocols to follow in the emergency room. Even when a person with mild symptoms or if he is asymptomatic comes in, you can’t just tell him to go and rest because he came to be checked. I guess that is because he is a patient once he steps into medical facilities and it is the doctor’s responsibility to look after him.
When you are working in a hospital or clinic regardless of its size, you need to care for the patient whatever their case would be. If you are assigned in the ER, you will experience all sorts of conditions and your exposure will boost your experience because you will have a lot to learn. That is one reason why emergency rooms are usually busy and patients come in a sudden so you have to stay alert and focused, especially when it is something traumatic.
Anyway, medical facilities, such as Southshore ER have experts who are always ready to face patients no matter what the circumstance is because they are trained that way. And then, even when they are in the toughest situation, they still provide emergency care which means that they don’t fail to miss the processes that these individuals must undergo. Let’s say that through these basic steps or protocols, they can keep the ER organized and everything can be managed.
Table of Contents
Triage
The first step is to determine how severe the condition is to know if he needs immediate treatment which is often applied even before reaching the ER so that’s when you are being transported to the hospital. Upon your arrival, the nurse will need some information, such as identity, the reason for this case, examine you briefly, and will take your medical history.
You will be assigned with priority level to determine the urgency of your case. In some cases, they will start diagnostic tests. Based on the level, you just need to wait to be treated because they will prepare this but you should inform the nurse or call for attention when the symptoms are getting worse.
Registration
You will be registered as a patient so your personal information will be entered into their database and to update any record they have. They will need your consent before starting any treatment, too, so that they can request diagnostic tests – visit https://www.britannica.com/topic/list-of-medical-tests-and-diagnostic-procedures-2074273 for detailed types of tests.
The results will be used by the physician to provide the best possible treatment available. However, if the situation has directly brought you to a room, the nurse will have to register you from there.
Treatment
This is the step where the treatment usually begins. In most emergency cases, the nurse will get you an IV because this is a faster way to administer medicines, as well as fluids which the attending physician ordered. If required, you will be asked for some samples, such as urine or blood for laboratory tests and will be asked for imaging tests like X-rays.
When the results are ready, these will be sent to the attending physician and will be used to assess you with the symptoms. However, these may take two hours or more so you have to stay in the waiting area which could be on the bed or wheelchair, depending on your status. Anyway, the nurse in-charged will make sure that you will be comfortable until the doctor calls you or when he comes to you.
Reevaluation
After receiving the test results, the patient’s condition will be reevaluated for more insights regarding your treatment. That’s why you should tell everything that you feel in your body because these will help the physician in assessing you. The results will determine your case and before deciding on the next step, these must be explained to you and your guardian or family members.
Through the results, the doctor will tell you to be ready for admission which means that your state is quite serious and might go for more advanced action. Well, if he tells you to go, then you will be prescribed medicines – click this to read further, and must continue the treatment at home. The last step will always be the discharge and this is for patients who were admitted for further observations and plans, such as surgery or therapy, but no matter how these cases end, you’ll still come back for follow-up checkups.