• Emily L Molan.
• University of Canberra, Disciplines of Nursing & Midwifery, Bruce, ACT 2601, Australia. Emily.Molan@canberra.edu.au
• Australas Emerg Nurs J. 2013 May 1; 16 (2): 45-51.

BackgroundScribe nurses within metropolitan emergency departments are traditionally Registered Nurses who document the resuscitation event to provide a true and timely representation of what occurred. Enrolled Nurses undertake the scribe role in some Australian emergency department resuscitations, particularly in rural and remote health services. There is no Australian research evidence pertaining to the role of the scribe nurse within a resuscitation team. This study explored the scribe role and the nursing work involved within it to appraise whether it is appropriate to delegate the responsibility away from Registered Nurses.MethodUsing a qualitative descriptive design, semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight Registered Nurses who had emergency department scribe nurse experience. Thematic analysis was adopted to identify common threads within the interview data.ResultsThe four themes identified were the role, scribe effectiveness, expertise and 'scribe by default'. Participants were generally positive regarding the potential for Enrolled Nurses to scribe in metropolitan emergency department resuscitation teams.ConclusionThe characteristics of an effective scribe; well developed communication skills, confidence and assertiveness and resuscitation 'know how', may be the measurement of readiness for the position of scribe nurse within the resuscitation team, rather than number of years of clinical experience or designation.Copyright © 2013 College of Emergency Nursing Australasia Ltd. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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