Journal of emergency nursing : JEN : official publication of the Emergency Department Nurses Association
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These online review questions, featured every other issue in JEN, offer emergency nurses an opportunity to test their knowledge about their practice.
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The major elements of an effective emergency medical services (EMS) system include a single telephone access number, accurate assessment of the urgency of the health problem, and timely dispatch of appropriate personnel and equipment. In Italy, EMS calls are managed by emergency operations centers by registered nurses who have received specialized education in this function. The nurses determine the criticality of the situations and assign an EMS response priority level identified by a color code, ranging from red (very critical) to green (not critical). At times, the severity of a situation may be underestimated, resulting in assignment of a lower EMS response priority and the potential for patient death (code black). The purpose of this study was to analyze factors associated with registered nurse under-triage of EMS calls subsequently found to be associated with deaths, termed "green-black code" cases. ⋯ Although the importance of dispatch system protocols is wellknown, it is also important that nurse triage operators have proper training to ensure that major parameters such as vital signs and symptomatology are obtained and to reduce caller stress level.
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Disaster education is important for everyone and especially nurses. Being informed, making individual and family communication plans, and creating the needed supplies to shelter in place or evacuate for one's self and family are required core readiness behaviors. Nurses also need to understand their role within the employer's emergency plans and incident command structure. All of these behaviors help the nurse to be ready and available to care for patients during disaster and emergency incidents.