Conversations about the tips, tricks, trends, and taboos of emergency nursing. A peek behind the hospital curtain at issues and ideas that seldom get discussed.
Sometimes, the most complicated problems can be solved with the simplest solutions. Nyssa and Lisa discuss “the checklist” - an elegant tool which revolutionized safety protocols in the field of aviation, and how they can - and should - be used in emergency medicine to increase favorable outcomes in patient care.
Coin-shaped button batteries are used in many common household items; they are often and easily picked up by toddlers and plopped directly into their mouths., where their alkaline properties can lead to fatal consequences. Nyssa and Lisa talk to pediatric flight nurse LaKeisha Neely about how to recognize the symptoms of button battery ingestion, and how to treat those patients before damage is done to their bodies.
RSI is a common high stakes procedure done in emergent airways in the ER, but imagine how your patients must feel if they regain awareness during paralysis. One patient said “it was the worst pain he'd ever had and it was unbearable.” How can your ER team avoid unwittingly contributing to this pain? Nyssa and Lisa examine a study that reveals the prevalence of awareness with paralysis in the ER and discuss how to keep it from happening to your patient.
Superstitious behavior is one thing, but Nyssa and Lisa have found proof that saying the dreaded Q word in the ER may indeed have a quantifiable impact on whether or not you have an out-of-control shift. Dive deep into the cause and effect relationship between luck and chaos, and learn all about the pandemonium an errant utterance can have on your practice.
Dumb people doing dumb things is nothing new, but Lisa and Nyssa - with special guest Dr. Cory Nonnemacher - examine how the viral challenge trend has led to a whole new generation of dangerous stunts being performed for likes and lolz by today's social-media hungry kids. Learn what challenges like the "Skullbreaker", "Milk Crate" and "Scalp Pop" look like when they present in your ERs, and what downstream health implications these internet exploits might mean to your patients.
In the second half of this special two-part episode, Lisa and Nyssa continue their discussion of human trafficking, this time investigating how and why an ER visit offers a potential escape route to victims of this global criminal enterprise. Learn how to recognize it, how to stop it, and how to protect yourself and your patient when you encounter it.
Whether you know it or not, as a healthcare professional, you have probably encountered a victim of human trafficking at least once in your practice. People of all ages, genders, backgrounds, and origins are trafficked every day, in every town in America. In this first half of a special two-part episode, Lisa and Nyssa discuss the particulars and statistics of this widespread and rapidly growing crime epidemic.
Patients rely on nurses to alleviate their suffering, but what can nurses do to protect themselves from the weight and stress of providing care for the sick and dying? Nyssa and Lisa talk to Ariel Brown and AnnMarie Papa about The Emotional PPE Project, an initiative born out of the overwhelmingly increased burden placed on healthcare workers during the COVID crisis. This no cost, no insurance resource connects mental health professionals eager to help professional caregivers shield themselves from the harm face-masks and hand sanitizer can't prevent. Nyssa made the call - and so can you!
The contribution a nurse makes to their community is heroic, and the Nurse Honor Guard was created to celebrate that contribution each time one of these heroes passes away. Nyssa and Lisa speak with Julie Murray about this important and necessary program to pay tribute to fallen nurses, one that can be easily established in every city and town to honor the work these healthcare professionals do to make the world a better place.
Nurses can learn a lot from case studies but they run the risk of being pretty snoozey. Not these three stories! Check out these bizarre case studies and the ER lessons that we learn from them. Nyssa originally presented this lecture live, in front of an audience at the excellent Southeastern Seaboard Symposium in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Enjoy "The Chef Without a Tongue", "Eleven Blue Men" and the "Pitcher Who Struck Out Murderer's Row".
In the critically ill trauma patient, optimizing airway, breathing, and circulation is not always as easy as the ABCs. In this episode, Nyssa and Lisa discuss resuscitative sequence intubation and how it differs from a crash intubation or a delayed sequence intubation. We also consider how to handle the special cases of TBI patients and the combative trauma patient.
Supraglottic airways are getting more and more spotlight time. Nyssa and Lisa discuss how, when you have a patient that comes in from the prehospital world with a SGA airway in place, the best practice is to leave it alone if it's working until you've addressed bigger issues. Seems simple, right? Let's find out why this paradigm shift is so important, and how to incorporate it into your practice.
In this special episode, recorded live at the FlightBridge ED FAST21 conference in Nashville in May, 2021 , Nyssa and Lisa reveal how and why one of the most ubiquitous tools used in every hospital and doctor's office may be inaccurate in up to 13% of the population, and what you can do to correct this serious and pervasive issue in your practice.
Let's face it: treating arrest after a blunt trauma may very well be a daily experience in your practice, but the standard protocols for resuscitation can actually do as much harm as good. Nyssa and Lisa talk to Dr. Amanda Humphries-Ventura about her approach to reviving a profusely bleeding and broken patient, so that nurses in both the ER and the pre-hospital environment can make simple but important changes in how they treat arrest when acute injuries raise the stakes.
Nyssa and Lisa review Paul Graham's classic productivity argument, and reframe it in the context of hospital employees, where the administration (a.k.a. managers) and the boots-on-the-ground medical personnel, specifically nurses (a.k.a. makers), are often at odds because of their wildly divergent schedules. So how is a 9-5, M-F management team supposed to train, meet with, evaluate, and develop an everything *but* 9-5, M-F nursing and hospital staff?
In the second half of this special episode, Britanny Smith shares her carefully cultivated "Toolkit" with The Q Word Podcast audience, explaining to Lisa and Nyssa how to assemble one to use in your practice when facing the complex interactions required when dealing with the neurodivergent population. This document (link on website) contains a comprehensive but concise list of Do's and Do Not's, as well as links to where you can investigate what simple items can be relied upon to help you and your patient communicate.
Following our Special Populations in Trauma series, and still sponsored by the Georgia Region V Regional Trauma Advisory Committee (RTAC), Nyssa and Lisa talk with educator Brittany Smith about how to care for what can be considered the most special, at risk population of patient: the neurodivergent. In this first part of our two-part series, learn how to recognize the signs of ASD, ADD, ODD, and other psychiatric disorders, especially in the pediatric population, and get tips on how to treat them without causing more distress.
The four part Special Populations in Trauma series is sponsored by the Georgia Region V Regional Trauma Advisory Committee (RTAC). Each EMS region establishes an RTAC to monitor the trauma system in their area from the prevalence, prevention, improvement, education, and compliance angles. The Region V RTAC planned educational trauma outreach to include classes and conferences for the quarter, but Covid-19 made it unsafe to carry out those plans in person. The regional leadership got creative and approached Lisa and Nyssa about using The Q Word Podcast platform to publish trauma education in a pandemic safe way both to their region and to others. We appreciate being included in this endeavor. The four episodes cover the deviations and additions to the usual primary and secondary trauma surveys in the special populations of the pregnant trauma patient, the pediatric trauma patient, the bariatric trauma patient, and the geriatric trauma patient. We discuss the epidemiology, the assessments and interventions, special considerations including ethical issues, and end of life concerns in each population.
The four part Special Populations in Trauma series is sponsored by the Georgia Region V Regional Trauma Advisory Committee (RTAC). Each EMS region establishes an RTAC to monitor the trauma system in their area from the prevalence, prevention, improvement, education, and compliance angles. The Region V RTAC planned educational trauma outreach to include classes and conferences for the quarter, but Covid-19 made it unsafe to carry out those plans in person. The regional leadership got creative and approached Lisa and Nyssa about using The Q Word Podcast platform to publish trauma education in a pandemic safe way both to their region and to others. We appreciate being included in this endeavor. These four episodes cover the deviations and additions to the usual primary and secondary trauma surveys in the special populations of the pregnant trauma patient, the pediatric trauma patient, the bariatric trauma patient, and the geriatric trauma patient. We discuss the epidemiology, the assessments and interventions, special considerations including ethical issues, and end of life concerns in each population.
The four part Special Populations in Trauma series is sponsored by the Georgia Region V Regional Trauma Advisory Committee (RTAC). Each EMS region establishes an RTAC to monitor the trauma system in their area from the prevalence, prevention, improvement, education, and compliance angles. The Region V RTAC planned educational trauma outreach to include classes and conferences for the quarter, but Covid-19 made it unsafe to carry out those plans in person. The regional leadership got creative and approached Lisa and Nyssa about using The Q Word Podcast platform to publish trauma education in a pandemic safe way both to their region and to others. We appreciate being included in this endeavor. The four episodes cover the deviations and additions to the usual primary and secondary trauma surveys in the special populations of the pregnant trauma patient, the pediatric trauma patient, the bariatric trauma patient, and the geriatric trauma patient. We discuss the epidemiology, the assessments and interventions, special considerations including ethical issues, and end of life concerns in each population.
This four part Special Populations in Trauma series is sponsored by the Georgia Region V Regional Trauma Advisory Committee (RTAC). Each EMS region establishes an RTAC to monitor the trauma system in their area from the prevalence, prevention, improvement, education, and compliance angles. The Region V RTAC planned educational trauma outreach to include classes and conferences for the quarter, but Covid-19 made it unsafe to carry out those plans in person. The regional leadership got creative and approached us about using The Q Word Podcast platform to publish trauma education in a pandemic safe way both to their region and to others. We appreciate being included in this endeavor. These four episodes cover the deviations and additions to the usual primary and secondary trauma surveys in the special populations of the pregnant trauma patient, the pediatric trauma patient, the bariatric trauma patient, and the geriatric trauma patient. We discuss the epidemiology, the assessments and interventions, special considerations including ethical issues, and end of life concerns in each population.
The LEMON mnemonic device works well for scheduled surgeries or other stable pre-op patients, but not so great in the ER. Nyssa and Lisa are joined by airway innovator Dave Olvera, who has developed a new way to think about how to assess difficult intubations.
It is undeniable that the COVID19 pandemic has forced everyone to operate differently, so Nyssa and Lisa investigate how to take advantage of this moment to effect positive, lasting changes in how healthcare professionals welcome this next, new generation of post-pandemic nurses.
It's no secret that working in the ER is a stressful job, but what is the real cost of carrying all the emotional burden inherent in life-and-death situations? Nyssa and Lisa have an in-depth discussion with Workr Beeing's Patricia and Katina, two IO psychologists dedicated to making the workplace a safer place for the self.
When team resuscitation is the goal, let the nurses run the algorithm, and let the doctors customize the code to the patient with differentials and Hs and Ts. So says Ashley Liebig in a discussion with Nyssa and Lisa about Nurse Led ACLS, and why it is important to keep egos out of the equation.
Nyssa and Lisa have a heart to heart (to heart) with nurse Jonathan Bartels, pioneer and author of the Medical Pause - the practice of taking a moment to stop after the death of a patient. Learn how this simple, lovely, and healing gesture helps everyone - from patient to practitioner - reflect, honor, and acknowledge what, and who, has just passed.
Nyssa and Lisa sit down with photo-journalist and documentary filmmaker Carolyn Jones, whose fascination and respect for the nursing profession launched the 2014 film The American Nurse, 2017's Defining Hope, and her upcoming project, In Case of Emergency, which focuses exclusively on the ER nurse. Learn why she thinks nurses - what they do and what they know - need to be brought front and center into the most important conversations of today.
Taking care of a child in the ER is a special kind of challenge, and a nurse's normal assessment tools often don't apply. Listen in as Nyssa chats with Pediatric Emergency Room Director Rebecca Cogburn, and learn about early pediatric warning signs and how to decipher them to improve your practice.
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Whether you're a baby nurse applying for your first job or a seasoned nurse looking for a new position, Nyssa and Lisa have the tips and tricks you need to impress potential employers. Don't be an unemployed clueless dinosaur in a low-cut dress! Since you can't take Alexa with you, tune in to learn better ways to nail that interview.
Lisa and Nyssa explore the question ER nurses are always asked: "what's the worst thing you've ever seen?" Learn why nurses respond the way they do, why it is not a good question for small talk, and why a better conversation starter might be whether or not pineapple belongs on pizza.
In the final installment of this trilogy of interviews, Nyssa and Lisa talk to the three Musketeers of airways - the Boone brothers Michael and Bryan, and Tyler Christifulli - about inflatable dinosaur suits, most excellent mustachios, and how and why you should bring the SALAD and ApOX intervention techniques from the ambulance or the air and into the ER.
Nyssa and Lisa talk to Dr. Matt Astin, a long-term fixture in the ER and dedicated educator, about the dogmas and sacred cows in emergency care, the importance of social media in nursing practice, and what Goldilocks' three bears are doing in the ER.
Nyssa and Lisa interview Matt Perry, Director of the Monroe County Emergency Management Agency, and learn how nurses and medics - two different teams - work together towards the same goal, just like Krispy Kreme donuts (aka "power rings") and Dunkin' Donuts coffee.
It is a widely accepted practice to have family present during the birth of a new baby, so why is it so uncommon for family to be near the bedside in the ER during the last moments of life? In this very special episode, Nyssa tells Lisa about the work she's done researching, developing, and championing policies and procedures designed to bring loved ones into the ER during code blue scenarios, and why this has become her personal crusade.
Nyssa and Lisa take a field trip to the Forest Hills Cemetery in the outskirts of Boston to visit the final resting places of several notable doctors and nurses who formalized the profession of nursing back in the good ol' days. Join us on this short tour of a lovely place on a creepy day, and learn a little something about the ladies who helped start it all. To see the pictures of the cemetery gates, the tombstones, and your water-logged hosts, check out our website here: https://www.theqwordpodcast.com/
Nyssa tells Lisa about her field trip to the Georgia Poison Center to chat with long-time director Dr. Gaylord Lopez. Learn from the man himself about what the Center does, how they do it, and why it is better to call them instead of relying on Google to answer questions about what you may have eaten, breathed in, touched, or otherwise come into contact with that might make you sick. And catch an ear-worm that just might end up saving your - or your patient's - life.
Do you feel like you are making things up as you go along just to look like you know what you are doing? Do you feel like you don't belong -- that someone made a mistake trusting you with the health and well-being of your patients? This phenomenon is more widespread than you think -- and if you suffer from imposter syndrome, you are in good company. Nyssa and Lisa talk about how to recognize this issue, what types of personalities most suffer from it, and how to deal with it in your practice.
Nyssa and Lisa talk about the intersection of experiences between the pre-hospital and ER. In this conversation - part one of the Q Word Podcast's first trilogy - Nyssa puts on her Air Flight helmet to discuss the choices she, and other flight teams, make in the air which differ from the way things are done in the hospital.
For many years, epinephrine has been used as treatment for cardiac arrest, but a new study - PARAMEDIC2 - released by the New England Journal of Medicine, challenges that notion. Nyssa and Lisa discuss the protocols, findings, ethics, and implications of this study, in an effort to introduce nurses to the idea that some big changes in ACLS may be just around the corner.
Lisa and Nyssa tackle one of the biggest taboos in emergency medicine: laughter in the ER. Why it happens, is it appropriate, and if it is, when is it appropriate?
Nyssa and Lisa give you the real deal on how to build a robust resume, score an interview, and insider tips on breaking into the industry.
Did you know that there is a right way and a wrong way to sanitize your work wear after your shift? Nyssa and Lisa talk cootie cleaning in their first fast track (mini) episode -- a quick and dirty conversation about how to not bring the hospital home with you.
Nyssa and Lisa talk about customs and concepts that pervade the ER which should be re-examined. Learn why "He/she is a good nurse, but...", "Everybody [or nobody] does it that way," and "No one will ever know" are little lies every nurse should watch out for in their practice.
More than you ever wanted to know about poop. How Nyssa almost quit nursing when she first encountered it in the ER, and how she - and all nurses - get used to it after a while.
Nyssa and Lisa interview ER nurse Donna Brannen, one of Nyssa's mentors, who drops some seriously golden advice and the mic (literally). She speaks frankly about third year residents, administration, ICU versus ER, night shift versus day shift, and why she wears mismatched shoes.
Welcome to the Q Word Podcast, where Nyssa - an ER and flight nurse - and her friend Lisa - an occasional and perpetually potential ER patient - have conversations about the tips, tricks, and taboos of emergency nursing. Take a peek behind the hospital curtain at the issues and ideas nurses - and their patients - often think about, but seldom talk about.
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