Nurse, author offers a closer look at ED nursing
Experienced emergency nurse and author reveals what it takes to be successful and what challenges to expect in this specialty.
By Jonathan Bilyk
Since the early 1990s, Jeff Solheim, MSN, RN, CEN, TCRN, CFRN, FAEN, has worked in just about every facet of emergency nursing. Most recently, however, Solheim has added the entry of author to his biography, leading a team of other emergency nurse contributors in writing “Emergency Nursing: The Profession, the Pathway, the Practice,” a book published by the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International.
Q What was the impetus behind the book?
A: There was no other book like this out there, talking about the profession of emergency nursing, our history, where we work and who we are, and putting it all in one place. We emergency nurses are in a relatively new profession, so this book fi lled a niche and a void out there.
Q What is some practical advice for success your book might off er to emergency nurses?
A: One of my favorite chapters in the book talks about the unique opportunities available to emergency nurses. They can work for in the CIA and NASA; on cruise ships and overseas; just about everywhere. We discuss how to fi nd and take advantage of some of these opportunities.
Another important chapter talks about self care. It’s so import-
ant as a nurse, but maybe especially as an emergency nurse, to take the time to take care of yourself. For example, consider your exercise regimen. There are a lot of nurses that swear by cardio workouts. But for what we do, weight training can be critical to
prepare for the demands of the job and stay fi t.
Q What are some challenges others may not necessarily associate with emergency nursing?
A: Probably the foremost challenge emergency nurses face that others may not is violence. We’re the fi rst door into the hospital, and often the only entrance at night. We take care of everybody in society: gang
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members, drug users, psychiatric patients, you name it. And we may deal with them or their families and friends while they’re in a terrible psychological and emotional state, while they may still be armed.
Next is wait times and overcrowding. Patients keep coming in,
and we can’t turn them away. But if we have no place to put them, and we can’t get them admitted and moved through fast enough, the ED can become very congested very quickly.
Q What are the top two things you believe emergency nurses can do to succeed?
A: First, learn collaboration. When fi ve codes come in the door within a span of just a few minutes, the only way you’re going to survive is through a collaborative eff ort. A healthy ED needs a team that works together, that embraces new people and new ideas, and trusts each other.
But secondly, look at the bigger picture. You can be the best stretcher-side nurse ever, but you need to understand how what you do fi ts in with everything else. So many nurses are willing to take on extra shifts and second jobs, but I believe they’d be better off getting involved in hospital and professional committees, and extra projects outside of the ED. Nurses who pursue diff erent activities and participate in other projects become better nurses.
We have to take care of ourselves, we have to take care of each other, and we have to take care of our profession. •
Jonathan Bilyk is a freelance writer. FOR MORE, visit
Nurse.com/Article/Solheim-QA.
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