Emergency Nurses Week – Celebrating Our Emergency Department

Everyone wants to work at a place that’s well run and where every member of the team is valued and empowered. That’s why nurses and physicians choose to work in the Emergency Department (ED) at Prowers Medical Center.

This week is Emergency Nurses Week, when emergency nurses across the country are celebrated for the positive impact they make in their patients’ and colleagues’ lives. At Prowers Medical Center, we are lucky to have wonderful, hardworking emergency nurses as well as other ED staff — from the unit clerks, to the nurses, physicians and ancillary staff.

“Every person on the team is a critical link to providing seamless care,” said Dr. Margaret Loewen, Emergency Department Medical Director. “That’s what makes our ED so successful. We not only hire for technical excellence, but also for interpersonal excellence. We select doctors and nurses that have the ability to talk with patients, respect patients and keep them involved in their plan of care.”

About Our Emergency Providers and Nurses

The ED experts at Prowers Medical Center can help treat an array of medical conditions, ranging from lacerations and illnesses to life threatening injuries. We service patients within a 60-mile radius and treat about 6,500 community members and travelers each year.

For those who might not know, hospitals often struggle with turnover in hospital staff, especially nurses. Yet in our Emergency Department, you will find years of longevity among the emergency nursing team — another characteristic we’d like to celebrate this Emergency Nurses Week.

“Our average length of employment is eight years,” explained Leslie Day, Emergency Department Clinical Manager at Prowers Medical Center. “We are proud of this low turnover rate. It’s because we work together as a team and we care about each other. That caring gets transferred to our patients through our amazing nurses.”

Our entire staff is fully certified in trauma care — a rarity at rural hospitals. Prowers Medical Center makes it a priority to have a physician on-site 24/7 to immediately assess patients and carry out treatment.

“Nothing happens without a physician’s orders, and well-trained nurses are there to support and carry out those orders,” Loewen said.

To work in the ED, nurses and physicians are required to hold specific trauma certifications. All physicians are certified in Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS), Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) and Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS). All emergency nurses hold comparable certifications, including Trauma Nurse Core Course (TNCC) certifications and Emergency Nursing Pediatric Course (ENPC) certifications.

Besides a well-trained staff, the Emergency Department at Prowers Medical Center gets support from other specialists. A general surgeon is on call for all trauma situations —alerted before a person arrives via ambulance — as are a multitude of support staff including certified registered nurse anesthetist, respiratory therapist, lab technicians and radiology technicians.

“We also have access to neurologists 24/7 via telemedicine when an emergency department physician suspects stroke,” Loewen said. “The neurologist can examine the patient via the ‘stroke robot’ with the ED physician present, that way we can immediately carry out the neurologist’s recommendations.”

Low Wait Times

The Emergency Department at Prowers Medical Center meets or exceeds set national standards, thanks to its dedication to excellence. A good example is our low wait times. The national average for patients to wait to be seen in the ED is 24 minutes, while at Prowers Medical Center, it is 14.5 minutes.

Not only are patients seen faster in our care, they are also admitted faster if they need to stay. The national average for admission after arriving at the ED is 276 minutes, while at Prowers Medical Center, it’s 192 minutes — almost an entire hour and a half faster.

Our facility features a private consultation area, five treatment rooms, two trauma rooms, a helipad and much more in our 9,500 square feet of space. Whether you are experiencing an accidental fall, having a heart attack, having difficulty breathing or are suffering injuries from a motor vehicle crash, you’ll receive exceptional, quality care from the Prowers Medical Center Emergency Department.