Katy Nicholson/Herald Staff Writer

Amy Lotven | Daily Herald James Jones, a patient at Halifax Regional Medical Center, talks to Nurse Morgan Joyner as she takes his blood pressure. Advertisement

ROANOKE RAPIDS - A car wreck can be a life-shattering experience, but it's a part of everyday life for emergency room nurses at Halifax Regional Medical Center.

Last week was Emergency Nurse Week, but ER nurses had little time to celebrate, as new patients came through their doors throughout the day and night.

Morgan Joyner began working as an ER nurse at Halifax Regional Medical Center one year and four months ago, right after she graduated from UNC-Wilmington. Joyner initially was nervous about making the transition from nursing student to full-time nurse, but said her co-workers were supportive and full of advice.

“They share their experience with you,” Joyner said. “That gives you more to draw from.”

Kimberly Halsey is a triage nurse, the one patients first encounter when they visit the emergency room. Triage nurses make the initial patient evaluations and determine the priority of their complaints. Halsey, who has been an RN for 23 years, explained that triage nurses usually are the more experienced ones. They must have especially good listening and assessment skills.

“Within a few minutes, we have to determine where the patient is going to go to get the care they need,” Halsey said.

A nurse's job is always changing. Though they already have many types of certification, they must continue their training throughout their careers. In order to retain their licenses, nurses must complete a minimum of 25 hours of continuing education every two years, Halsey said, and they often end up exceeding that minimum.

Nurses have unconventional work schedules. Often, they only work four days per week, but their days are usually eight or 12 hours long.

When patients check into the ER, the triage nurse decides whether they need to be sent to the main emergency room or the convenient care unit, which treats people with “aches and pains and coughs and colds.” People with more serious injuries and illnesses can be treated in one of three trauma rooms or flown to other medical centers.

Nurses take their vital signs (blood pressure, respiratory rate, heart rate and temperature) and perform a nursing assessment, which involves listening to the patient's lungs, heart and stomach.

The nurses then help the patients according to their protocol book until a physician is able to see the patient.

Though her job keeps her busy and can be stressful, Joyner said she loves to care for people. She said one of the biggest challenges of her job is trying to “keep work at work.” It can be easy to worry about the well-being of her patients even after her shift is over.

Joyner said though her job may not be for everyone, she knows its where she belongs. To be a good nurse, she said, “you have to love it.”