Australasian emergency nursing journal : AENJ
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Disaster nursing was one of the first forms of nursing practice in Iran, and nurses have long served voluntarily in disasters. Despite their key role throughout a disaster management cycle, few studies have examined nurses' unique role in the management of disasters in this region of the world. ⋯ The integration of dedicate organisational units to educate human workforces, formalising a relationship between nursing staff and the disaster organisations, creative educational content, and effective economical systems to educate nurses may further enable disaster preparedness and response.
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Australas Emerg Nurs J · Nov 2014
Multicenter StudyManagement of patients on chemotherapeutic treatment for advanced cancer with acute conditions in the emergency department.
Chemotherapy is increasingly used in people with advanced cancer to palliate symptoms and improve survival. New Zealand provides medical oncology services in a Hub and Spoke model, with an increasing emphasis on delivering treatment at out-patient spoke services, where after hours and urgent care is provided by the Emergency Department (ED). This study sought to describe the factors that influenced the care and clinical decision-making of this group of patients in the ED. ⋯ A more collaborative relationship between Oncology and ED nurses may support the provision of emergency care within the context of active cancer treatment.
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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
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.
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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.