A new documentary profiles emergency nurses.

If you think the photo on the cover of the September issue is dramatic, it’s because it was taken during the emergency treatment of a young man with a gunshot wound. (See On the Cover for details.)

The photo is from the new film by filmmaking team Carolyn Jones and Lisa Frank, In Case of Emergency, which was made in concert with the Emergency Nurses Association to mark its 50th anniversary.

Michelle Lyon, RN, an ED nurse at the University of Kentucky Albert B. Chandler Hospital, Lexington.

The film’s release is scheduled for October 14th, the beginning of Emergency Nurses Week, and we highlight the film in a photo-essay in the September issue. (The article is free until the end of the month, and best viewed as a pdf.)

The film follows the work of ED nurses in several parts of the country. As a former ED nurse, I was struck by the ability of these filmmakers to accurately capture the work.

Scenes showing what ED nurses deal with daily, from dramatic resuscitations to routine lacerations to heartbreaking cases of patients with mental health issues, are spot-on, and as Jones said in my podcast interview with her, the “ED reflects everything that’s going on in our country.”

A closer look at trauma-related hemorrhagic shock.

ED nurses will also appreciate the CE article in the September issue, Trauma-Related Hemorrhagic Shock: A Clinical Review. The authors provide a comprehensive update on new thinking underlying the pathology of shock, assessment parameters, and “damage control resuscitation,” including preventing the trauma triad and whole blood vs component therapy.

As the article points out, “Despite the important role nurses play in caring for patients with trauma-related hemorrhagic shock, much of the literature on this condition is directed toward paramedics and physicians.” This article does much to change this trend. And like all of our CE articles, it’s free to read.