Australasian emergency nursing journal : AENJ
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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.
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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.
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Australas Emerg Nurs J · Feb 2013
ReviewThe role of the emergency department in the acute management of chronic or recurrent pain.
Exacerbation of chronic pain is a common presenting problem for patients attending emergency departments (EDs), with many making multiple visits. ⋯ It is evident that the ED is not the ideal setting for managing patients with chronic pain however it is the last resort for many who do present, and who will continue to present should their pain persist. It is time to ensure that the ED provides a consistently supportive, cohesive and integrated approach to managing patients with chronic pain syndromes.
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Australas Emerg Nurs J · Feb 2013
ReviewA review of the quality assurance processes for the Australasian Triage Scale (ATS) and implications for future practice.
Triage is a critical component in the delivery of time-sensitive emergency care. Decision-making and the activity of the triage nurse affect patient access to care and allocation of emergency department (ED) resources. ⋯ At present, there is no standard approach to retrospective examination of triage decisions using the Australasian Triage Scale. The aim of this literature review is to identify the quality control strategies used in triage and the factors that appear to influence triage decisions in relation to the Australasian Triage Scale.