Essay Sample about Nurses of the Emergency Room
Emergency room nurses can be viewed as a discourse community for many reasons. Discourse community members have common public goals, the same level of expertise that is needed to be in the community and communicate in different ways to get sufficient results. Emergency room nurses are constantly busy. They accommodate to their patients based on their needs. Whether their needs are something as little as a broken finger or as major as a car crash. E.R. nurses must evaluate their patients and decide how much attention the need. Deciding what line of action in little time is one of the most difficult tasks given to them. Citizens, like myself, rely on nurses because they have the expertise that we do not.
In the E.R., nurses say things to assist their performance such as patient’s names, other staff member’s names, orders for supplies needed, call for assistance, questions for patients, etc. Because of the chaos in the emergency room, they speak stern and loudly. This allows for nothing to get confused or dismissed. With the technology we have now, emergency room nurses typically type all your information into a computer. In your record they state basic information like name, age, and address. As well as the changes in your charts, temperature, pulse, blood pressure and symptoms of the problem. This allows for your data to move faster with less errors. In the emergency room, you can vividly determine who is a nurse and who is not. Emergency room nurses have expertise in their field that we obviously do not have. They have gotten a degree and use it to their advantage. As expected, the nurses are on top of their work and know what they are doing. Also, another way to tell is the nurses will have their uniform on, which is usually a pair of scrubs, tennis shoes/nursing clogs, and a name tag.
The discourse community of emergency room nurses share very valuable goals. E.R. nurses do their utmost to provide the best care towards their patients and improve in their skills daily. With these goals in place, they are saving lives everyday as a team. Emergency room nurses learn deal with new problems daily and tackle them headfirst. Another less sympathetic goal they have is the money. Although that specific goal doesn’t sit right with many people, the pay increases the amount of people that go into the emergency room field. Therefore, it betters the emergency rooms everywhere. This specific discourse community exists for so many reasons. Patients that are suffering from an injury, trauma, or severe medical conditions go to the E.R. They are trained to work quickly to identify the problem, ease pain, and stay calm. If someone needed medical attention immediately and emergency room nurses did not exist, they may not be treated fast enough. For example, after my mother and I got into a car accident, she had to be rushed to the hospital via ambulance. As they brought her inside of the hospital the emergency room nurses were stern with their orders. They immediately gave her medicine for her pain and decided where to take her quickly. The E.R. nurses ultimately keep patients in the best shape possible before deciding an end treatment or procedure.
Communication through this specific discourse community is very important. They use many ways of communication, one being face to face. Face to face communication is relatively the most accurate way of spreading information because you’re more likely to understand correctly and it’s much quicker. Another way they communicate in the E.R. is through a phone or pager. This way of spreading information is slower and sometimes confusion can occur. If it was the only option, it would still be effective. E.R. nurses use acronyms to help transfer information on the computer. An acronym an emergency nurse may use is “rainbow.” About two weeks ago I went to the emergency room with my friend because he was having trouble breathing. He has a heart condition called SVT or also known as Supraventricular Tachycardia. As we were there, one of the other nurses said “rainbow” to another and I asked what it meant. She told me that it indicates that all tests need to be ran on my friend to ensure he is okay. This allows for quicker communication, and not having to type out a ton of directions. The emergency room nurses use these ways of communication to keep things from getting misunderstood. Without organization and dialogue, the emergency room would be very unreliable, and many disastrous things could happen. Emergency room nurses have a huge vocabulary. There are seven standardized languages that nurses use. A genre they use in the medical field is a care plan. This is a document used to show the problems, solutions, and success rates of a patient. In addition to using the care plan, E.R. nurses use patient charts. These show everything that the nurses have done or what they’ve been told from the patient. The E.R. nurse genres are in place to advocate for both the nurse and inpatient.
In the discourse community of emergency room nurses, there is conflict over many things. The nurses have conflict that is ego based, issue based, and values based. Ego based conflicts are arguing for the soul purpose of being right. The argument is a disagreement between two people over a problem letting their self-esteem get in the way of finding a solution. This can happen over little or big things. Ego-based conflicts are not professional, especially at the workplace. An issued based conflict is usually over a problem with a simple fix. There can be issue conflicts over personal methods, diversity, and much more. For example, an emergency room nurse could not like the way another nurse did something and try to make them do it their preferred method. Lastly, value-based conflict happens when there’s disagreement over differences in values. Our values are based on things like our personal lives, education, society norms, and much more. The only way to keep this from occurring is respect everyone’s opinion. E.R. nurses obviously have difficulties. They are under a great amount of pressure every single shift they work. Lives are in their hands everyday or night.
This specific career can be emotional, violent, and unpredictable at times. This is difficult for not only newcomers, but also other nurses that have had years of practice. In the E.R. nurse discourse community, the person with the authority are the nurse managers, nurse directors, or nurse chiefs. These people have authority over emergency room nurses because they have had more education. The individuals with authority are registered nurses with different degrees on top of that. Newcomers of the emergency room career face a challenging first year. They are expected to learn a lot of information in a small amount of time. Skills in the E.R. are learned through experience. To learn more about the field, newcomers evaluate what the “older” nurses do. Sometimes it is a struggle to learn because some of the nurses that have been there longer do not like extra bodies to get in the way. Also, the more experienced nurses believe that they are better than you while you are just there to learn and become better. To be apart of this discourse community you must attend college. At college you must obtain either an Associate Degree in Nursing or a Bachelor of Science in nursing. After that, you must pass the National Council Licensure Examination before getting a job. To acquire experience for the emergency room career, you must work in a place related to an emergency room nurse. For higher chances of getting a job, applying to earn a certificate from the Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing will help your odds. E.R. nurses are stereotyped with the assumption that they must be women. This is because women are “more compassionate and caring” compared to men. Whoever receives the proper education can be apart of this discourse community. Emergency room nurses strive for the best care possible for each patient. They work together and communicate in multiple ways. Using each other’s knowledge and experience to form a strong discourse community.
