As a nurse, there is no greater danger than losing your nursing license or a patient's life. It's the constant fear that creeps into every employee's mind as they clock in for their shift. It is a concern often demonstrated in the setting of an emergency room or intensive care unit. Both of these departments experience an influx of patients and since acute life-threatening ailments never occur as expected, these departments face the possibility of overflow any day of the week. So much so that hospitals even have protocols in place to control “excessive capacity,” as defined by many facilities. In the emergency department, many nurses find it impossible to accurately document and treat more than five patients at a time. It becomes an even greater responsibility for these nurses when some of these patients take on a level one or two emergency service index. Those who work in intensive care face a similar situation when they are forced to take on more than two patients at a time. ICU patients are usually made up of several IVs run simultaneously while most patients are intubated for respiratory support. It is a scenario that requires the utmost attention to detail and the expertise to spot any trend of decline in the patient's situation