Australasian emergency nursing journal : AENJ
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Australas Emerg Nurs J · Nov 2014
Medication errors in ED: Do patient characteristics and the environment influence the nature and frequency of medication errors?
Medication safety is of increasing importance and understanding the nature and frequency of medication errors in the Emergency Department (ED) will assist in tailoring interventions which will make patient care safer. The challenge with the literature to date is the wide variability in the frequency of errors reported and the reliance on incident reporting practices of busy ED staff. ⋯ Medication errors related to patient identification, allergy status and medication omissions occur more frequently in the ED when the ED is busy, has sicker patients and when the staffing is not at the minimum required staffing levels.
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Australas Emerg Nurs J · Nov 2014
Observational StudyAudit improves emergency department triage, assessment, multi-modal analgesia and nerve block use in the management of pain in older people with neck of femur fracture.
The use of NBs as a mode of analgesia for #NOF in the ED is not common practice despite the reported clinical benefits of quicker onset of pain relief, decreased use of additional analgesia and decreased amounts of analgesia required when more than one mode of analgesia is prescribed. ⋯ The number of older people with #NOF presenting to the ED in Australia is increasing and historically, pain management in this group of patients could be improved. This study demonstrated that an audit, intervention and re-audit design that focused on the implementation of educational and promotional strategies informed by evidence on current and best practice standards were successful in improving delivery of analgesia to elderly patients with #NOF in the ED.
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Australas Emerg Nurs J · Nov 2014
Initial emergency nursing management of patients with severe traumatic brain injury: development of an evidence-based care bundle for the Thai emergency department context.
Thai emergency nurses play a vital role in caring for patients with severe TBI, and are an important part of the healthcare team throughout the resuscitation phase. They are also responsible for continuous physiological monitoring, and detecting deterioration associated with increased intracranial pressure and preventing secondary brain injury. However, there is known variation in Thai nurses' knowledge and care practices for patients with severe TBI. In addition, there are no specific evidence-based practice guidelines available for emergency nursing management of patients with severe TBI. ⋯ A care bundle is one method of promoting consistent, evidence-based emergency nursing care of patients with severe TBI, decreasing unnecessary variations in nursing care and reducing the risk of secondary brain injury from suboptimal care. Implementation of this evidence-based care bundle developed specifically for the Thai emergency nursing context has the potential to improve the care of the patients with severe TBI.