Australasian emergency nursing journal : AENJ
-
Australas Emerg Nurs J · May 2013
Scribe during emergency department resuscitation: Registered Nurse domain or up for grabs?
Scribe 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. ⋯ The 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.
-
Australas Emerg Nurs J · May 2013
Australasian emergency nurses' willingness to attend work in a disaster: a survey.
The type of disaster, individual demographic factors, family factors and workplace factors, have been identified in the international, multidisciplinary literature as factors that influence a person's willingness to attend and assist in their workplace during a disaster. However, it is unknown if these factors are applicable to Australasian emergency nurses. ⋯ The factors that influenced Australasian emergency nurses to attend their workplace in a disaster were similar to that described in the international multidisciplinary literature. Of particular note, improving disaster knowledge and skills, having a family disaster plan and improving the perceptions of the nurses' workplace preparedness can enhance the nurses' willingness to assist in a disaster.
-
Australas Emerg Nurs J · May 2013
Disaster content in Australian tertiary postgraduate emergency nursing courses: a survey.
Emergency nurses play a pivotal role in disaster relief during the response to, and recovery of both in-hospital and out-of-hospital disasters. Postgraduate education is important in preparing and enhancing emergency nurses' preparation for disaster nursing practice. The disaster nursing content of Australian tertiary postgraduate emergency nursing courses has not been compared across courses and the level of agreement about suitable content is not known. ⋯ The majority of courses had some disaster content but there were considerable differences in the content chosen for inclusion across courses. The incorporation of core competencies such as those from the International Council of Nurses and the World Health Organisation, may enhance content consistency in curriculum. Additionally, this content could be embedded within a proposed national education framework for disaster health.
-
Australas Emerg Nurs J · May 2013
Measuring patient dependency--performance of the Jones Dependency Tool in an Australian emergency department.
The emergency department (ED) is a dynamic environment, in which a high volume of undifferentiated patients with varying levels of urgency must be assessed and treated in a timely manner, primarily by nurses. Nurses not only provide initial but also continuing care for all patients presenting to the ED. Predicting the number of nurses required and the ideal ratio of nursing staff to patients presenting is complex. Current methods of predicting ED nursing workforce fail to reflect the severity and variability of illness/injury or case mix. In addition, they exclude the realities of patients have different nursing requirements, that patient stability changes frequently and that issues such as patient surge (sudden high volumes of presentations) do occur. The aim of this study was to examine the potential for using the Jones Dependency Tool (JDT) for determining patient dependency in the Australian context. ⋯ This study has demonstrated that the JDT can consistently measure patient dependency within one Australian adult ED. Further testing of the JDT needs to be undertaken in order to explore the potential for the tool to contribute to nurse-patient ratio models and patient communication handover.