International emergency nursing
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When a person with vague symptoms calls 112, the dispatchers often have difficulty prioritising the severity of the call. Their only alternative has been to send an ambulance. In Gothenburg, Sweden, a nurse-manned single responder (SR) was initiated to assess this patient group. ⋯ Of the 200 SS/PC patients, 38 (19%) attended the ED within 72 hrs with residual symptoms, 20 of whom were admitted to a ward. Nine patients (4% of 200 SS/PC patients) required inpatient treatment and 11 patients stayed overnight for observation. These results suggest a relatively high level of patient safety and the usefulness of an SR among patients assessed by the dispatcher as low priority.
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Triage nurses control access to the Emergency Department (ED) and make decisions about patient acuity, patient priority, and placement of the patient in the ED. Understanding the processes and strategies that triage nurses use to make decisions is therefore vital for patient safety and the operation of the ED. The aim of the current study was to generate a substantive grounded theory (GT) of decision making by emergency triage Registered Nurses (RNs). ⋯ Triage RNs require appropriately designed triage environments and computer technology that enable them to secure real time knowledge of the ED to maintain situation awareness.
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The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of a nurse training intervention on the assessment of patients' care needs in telephone triage at an emergency unit. The objective of this study was to generate information about nurse training that can be utilized when developing telephone triage and health care education. ⋯ Nurses should receive continuous training in telephone triage in order to maintain and reinforce their professional competence. When planning the training, the age and relevant work experience of the nurses should be taken into consideration as well, since the results indicate that they lead to variation in the nurses' competence.
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Despite increasing emergency department (ED) use for psychiatric emergencies, limited evidence exists to clearly identify the competencies necessary of emergency nurses to care for this population. ⋯ Emergency nurses perform psychiatric competencies often, and existing competencies appear applicable. As frequency and importance of competencies influence self-efficacy, practice and interventions to underscore the importance of competencies may improve self-efficacy. Younger and less experienced nurses might require more support.
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The aim of this study was to explore the impact of incorporating a physician at triage (PAT) and the implementation of a medical assessment unit (MAU) on emergency department (ED) patient throughput. ⋯ Placing a physician at triage and implementing a medical assessment unit were viable models of care that promoted patient flow and helped meet several time-sensitive health service targets.