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Show Emergency loom VJcrk Ho EnciQing "This might sound strange, but I enjoy my work," says University Hospital Emergency Emer-gency Room Supervisor Madeline Anderson, RN. "EMERGENCY room work is exciting. It's never the same. You can't foresee who's going to come through the door next," according to Ms. Anderson. Ms. Anderson has been ER supervisor since 1965 and finds her job a challenging combination of administrative administra-tive work and patient care. Because of her daily relationship rela-tionship with hospital and community volunteers, paramedics and police, she feels she works as closely with the community as with the University Hospital. "I'VE WANTED to be a nurse since I was knee-high to a grasshopper," says Ms. Anderson. She was bom and reared in Salt Lake City where her grandmother was a pioneer midwife. After three years training at the old Salt Lake County Hospital, she received her BS degree from the University of Utah College of Nursing. She returned to the county hospital hospi-tal to start her nursing career "and just moved up here on day one" when the University Medical Center opened in July 1965. SINCE THEN, Ms. Anderson Ander-son has taken only one year out from the ER to organize a patient care unit for the rehabilitation center. As supervisor, nurse Anderson An-derson hires and trains staff, serves on various community and hospital committees and meets dally crises involving actual patient care. She works with every hospital department depart-ment and with the Red Cross, which supplies many of the volunteers who assist in ER. "WE HAVE RNs, LPNs, attendants, interns and residents working here," says Ms. Anderson. "There also are student nurses, medical students, paramedics and emergency medical technicians tech-nicians who we help train. We're constantly in the teaching business." She says an average of 20,000 cases arrive at the ER each year. "We have not been as busy the last five years as we used to be." Still, there is never a day without many patients. THE DIAGNOSIS column of the log book has a little of everything. Chest pain, sunburn, sun-burn, lacerations, drug overdose, over-dose, cardiovascular arrest, backache, burns and dog bite are just a few of the entries. "Unplanned deliveries of babies are also typical of the ER," says Ms. Anderson. "We also see psychiatric patients pa-tients since we're the 24 hour crisis intervention center for the area. "PEOPLE have the misconception mis-conception that there are a. lot of violent injuries in the ER. But it's only like that in the case of bad accidents. Most of the time it's similar to a doctor's doc-tor's office," she says. To Ms. Anderson, the sight of blood and the pressure found in the ER is "just part of nursing." "You get used to it gradually, starting from the beginning of your trainine." "THE ER really consists of 10 rooms including staff sleeping quarters and areas for examination, recovery, waiting, cast work and communications com-munications systems. In the communications room, the ER staff can radio orders to paramedics bringing bring-ing patients into the hospital and read EKG strips and patient pa-tient heart monitors. "MY WORK is always exciting," ex-citing," says Ms. Anderson. "I'm constantly meeting the public. Ninety-nine percent of the time it's the public's first view of our University Hospital. Hospi-tal. I hope it is a good one." |