THE ROLE OF THE NURSES

The Role of the Nurse in Accident and Emergency Department



Abstract

This paper describes about the role of nurses in accident and emergency department. It explains their duties and responsibilities in A&E department. It explains how they manage the diverse kinds of emergencies by their skills. It describes how they perform their role in diagnosis and treatment of patients.

The Role of the Nurse in Accident and Emergency Department

Introduction

An emergency nurse practitioner has knowledge of nursing practice based on all aspects of accident and emergency nursing, with post-basic education in assessment, diagnosis and treatment. The emergency nurse practitioner plays an important role in the healthcare system. Emergency Nurse Practitioner must be an autonomous and able to assess the patients, diagnose them, treat them, and must be able to make referrals to other healthcare professionals

Benefits of Emergency Nurse Practitioner

Early assessment and treatment, without referral to a physician.

Waiting time reduction to treatment for patients.

Earlier diagnostic measures.

Improved provision of health promotion opportunities.

Reduction of A&E workload.

Earlier referral to other health professionals, if desired.

Provides services to patients in minor injuries (Dolan & Holt, 2007, pp. 299).

Emergency Nurse Education

Emergency nurse practitioner should receive education that should be: It should be competency based;

Have core elements to develop skills;

Equip nurses with skills to do practice in ER environments.

It should be developed in partnership with medical practitioners.

It must make the best use of opportunities for learning.

It must delivered in innovative ways (Hummel & Evan, 2010, pp. 531-535)

Discussion

Emergency room is considered as the frontline of health care centre and approximately 70% of the total patients are emergency patients. An ER is responsible for providing quality medical services to patients during an emergency. Patients who arrive in the emergency room have an acute issue or disease that must be managed in a timely manner. Every patient has different condition; an emergency nurse is responsible for managing each condition in relevance to its importance. The Emergency Nurse Practitioner helps in reducing the waiting times for patients having acute problems (Griffin & Melby, 2006, pp. 292-301).

The emergency nurse practitioner improves quality of care in ER and assists in reducing pressure on doctors in ER, every nurse must be familiar with the role of “triage” in nursing profession. Triage means to place the conditions of patients in order of their importance. The needs of an emergency room patient should be determined, by considering both physical and psychosocial factors.

The emergency nurse practitioner is the first one who assesses injuries and decides about patients, which condition is more serious and must be managed first. Less serious patients, that could wait should be attended after attending serious patients. In these conditions, an ER nurse uses expertise and decides which patient needs a quicker response. An emergency nurse practitioner must be able to make accurate and quick decisions, should have experience in acute care setting and should demonstrate highly skilled approach for management of patients (Leach & Mayo, 2010, pp. 5 ...