International emergency nursing
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The formal provision of emergency health care is a developing specialty in many sub-Saharan African countries, including Ghana. While emergency medicine training programs for physicians are on the rise, there are few established training programs for emergency nurses. The results of a unique collaboration are described between a university in the United States, a Ghanaian university and a Ghanaian teaching hospital that has developed an emergency nursing diploma program. The expected outcomes of this training program include: (a) an innovative, interdisciplinary, team-based clinical training model, (b) a unique and low-resource emergency nursing curriculum and (c) a comprehensive and sustainable training program to increase in-country retention of nurses.
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Emergency department (ED) crowding and prolonged waiting times have been associated with adverse consequences towards quality and patient safety. ⋯ The number of patients simultaneously present is a moderate indicator of unsafe waiting times. Future initiatives to improve safe waiting times should not focus solely on occupancy, and expand their focus towards other factors affecting waiting time.
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To determine the frequency, duration and type of audible monitor alarms in an ED, utilising the standard manufacturer's classification. ⋯ Whilst high level monitoring is desired from a patient safety perspective, it contributes to a significant ambient noise level, which is recognised by all who pass through an ED, and can be detrimental to patients, relatives and staff. We have demonstrated that there is a high probability of near-continuous alarm noise from patient monitoring in a 10-bedded Majors area. We make suggestions for methods of noise reduction and intend to implement some of these within our own ED.
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This study investigated the inter-observer agreement (IOA) between doctors and nurses on triaging adult ED dyspneic patients. ⋯ Trained ED nurses were safe and managed adult dyspneic patients as well as doctors at triage.
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Cultural awareness of emergency department staff is important to ensure delivery of appropriate health care to people from all ethnic groups. Cultural awareness training has been found to increase knowledge about other cultures and is widely used as a means of educating staff, however, debate continues as to the effectiveness of these programs. ⋯ Future strategies to improve staff cultural awareness need to be investigated, developed, implemented and evaluated.