Lydia Voorhees, RN, TCRN, CEN

By Erin Flynn Jay

Lydia Voorhees, a Trauma Certified Registered Nurse (TCRN®), wanted to prove to herself and her patients that not only was she a good ER/trauma nurse but a great one with the board certification to back it up. She certified to give herself a higher level of confidence and thus impart confidence in others and has been a TCRN® for over a year.

As an ER nurse, grasping the entire scope of trauma care was the most difficult for her. “You need to be well versed in the entirety of the patient’s care from the scene of the incident through the ED, surgery, ICU, rehab, and post-traumatic care,” she said. “Talking to EMS, ICU, surgical trauma teams, social workers, and survivors really expanded the scope of what I was doing at the moment of care and how I viewed the patient and talked to the family. I was able to take that knowledge and apply it in the certification.”

Voorhees’s best study tactic to prepare for the TCRN exam was to find her best learning method and stick to it. She loved getting books she could study at her leisure, taking notes and re-reading areas she felt she was weak on. “But for me, in-person learning drives the lesson home, so a friend and I traveled a thousand miles to attend a TCRN prep class and then took the certification exam the next day. Having both the slow osmosis of the text and then the flood of the intense course fresh in our minds let both of us recall the information much easier and pass,” she added.

Because the TCRN® is a relatively new certification, Voorhees doesn’t see how she would do anything differently. She started her career at one of the busiest trauma centers in the U.S. and it’s now in her blood. Looking over the study materials from trusted sources and then taking the class prepped her perfectly.

Due to recertify in 2020, Voorhees plans on the continuing education option. “As a nurse, we should learn something new every day, so why not take advantage of that and get CEUs at the same time?” she asked.

Voorhees works in an ER that serves a wide population and is a designated trauma center in her state of Washington.

She works the night shift, so every night is typical and not so typical. “We have a lot of elderly trauma, frequent-flyer drunks, an increasing psych population, strokes (especially on anticoagulant therapy), MVAs [motor vehicle accidents], MIs [myocardial infarctions], long transport traumas, you-name-its,” she said. “Dead some nights, running codes and traumas like they are going out of style the next.”

Her favorite part of being a TCRN® is being able to back her knowledge up with certification. If her knowledge tells her to question an order, she can back up her gut feeling to the ordering provider with confidence to provide the best patient care.

Voorhees feels she helps her patients the most by understanding what happened in the field and why. “By being the stop gap between rushed provider orders and patient safety in the ED. By being able to prep the patient and family as to what the next steps might be. To find a silver lining in a physical/emotional situation and to be able to impart to them about what is happening or what could be.” If the worst happened, she is prepared to support them, and her team, to the best of her ability.

What does she wish she knew when she started practicing? “To be honest, emotional disconnect and/or a healthy emotional outlet. You need to find some way to not let the trauma—emotional, physical, or spiritual—bring you down as an individual. Regardless of what you see or feel on the job, you need to stay rested, healthy, happy, and fulfilled at home,” she said.

Voorhees is also a certified emergency nurse (CEN) and plans on becoming a certified pediatric emergency nurse (CPEN) next.

She thinks she has been a huge resource to the staff that aren’t as experienced in trauma. Staff turns to her for advice on direct patient care, dealing with family, to knowing their personal emotional limits. Her co-workers know her background in trauma, and her TCRN backs that up.

 

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