Journal of emergency nursing : JEN : official publication of the Emergency Department Nurses Association
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Charge nurses (CNs) are shift leaders who manage resources and facilitate patient care, yet CNs in EDs receive minimal training, with implications for patient safety and emergency nursing practice. The purpose of the study was to describe the experiences of emergency nurses related to training, preparation, and function of the CN role. ⋯ The ED CN is critical to the safety of both nursing environment and patient care. Nurses in this pivotal role do not receive adequate leadership orientation or formal training in the key areas of nurse patient assignment, communication, and situational awareness. Formal training in nurse-patient assignment, communication, and situational awareness are critical to appropriate patient care and maintenance of interprofessional trust necessary for successful execution of the CN role. ED nurse managers should advocate for this training.
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The use of personal protective equipment increased rapidly during the COVID-19 pandemic that began in 2019. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of uninterrupted 4-hour use of internationally certified nonvalved filtering facepiece respirators on venous blood gas in health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. ⋯ Continuous nonvalved filtering facepiece respirator use for 4 hours was not associated with clinician impairment in blood gas and peripheral SpO2 levels during nonexertional clinical ED work.
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The overarching objective of this scoping review was to explore the breadth of health care literature in attempts to identify current strategies that hospitals adopt to improve patient bed flow, reduce access and exit block while optimizing patient care. ⋯ This study addressed aims and identified current strategies that hospitals adopt to tackle access block while guaranteeing patient care. Government-supported research to map out evidence-based models of care that address exit block and demonstrate efficiencies is required to optimize access to care in the community.
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ED health care professionals are at the frontline of evaluation and management of patients with acute, and often undifferentiated, illness. During the initial phase of the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak, there were concerns that ED health care professionals may have been at increased risk of exposure to SARS-CoV-2 due to difficulty in early identification of patients. This study assessed the seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies among ED health care professionals without confirmed history of COVID-19 infection at a quaternary academic medical center. ⋯ At this quaternary academic medical center, among those who volunteered to take an antibody test, there was a low seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies among ED clinicians who were asymptomatic at the time of blood draw and not known to have had prior COVID-19 infection.