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The Role of Emergency Nurses
By Dr Zulfikar Bux
For those that would have accessed care at the GPHC Accident & Emergency Department (A&E) in the
Dr Zulfikar Bux
past couple of years, you would have noticed obvious improvements in efficiency and medical care. Given that we are the National referral centre and we also have to accommodate the large city population, we are often over-utilized and this intermittently leads to delayed waiting times for the not so urgent cases. Even then, our waiting times can still challenge waiting times of Emergency Departments in developed countries. Focus on systems development and education has led to improved efficiency in care even during times where the department is crowded with excess flow of patients from around the country.
One of the reasons for improvements in patient care at the A&E is the drastic improvement of emergency nursing care. I have decided that it is only prudent that I highlight the importance of emergency nursing care in an emergency room so that we all can come to appreciate the work and role of Nurses in the A&E.
Emergency Nurses like Emergency Physicians are specialized in delivering time sensitive care to patients whose medical condition warrants meticulous and urgent attention. They deliver time sensitive care for undifferentiated patients in a systematic manner. This means that they are always on the go and have little to no room for mistakes. Unlike patients in the other specialties, emergency patients generally come with unknown medical conditions and need care in an efficient manner so that the continuous flow of other emergency patients can be attended to. This takes scrupulous coordination between the emergency nurses and doctors and hence creates a team based environment of practice in emergency departments.
The Nurses at GPHC’s A&E
For the last couple of years, intimate coordination between the Nursing Services, the A&E management, GPHC management and the Vanderbilt Medical Center, has led to a transformation of emergency nursing care in the A&E. Although we have not formally started an Emergency Nursing specialty course as yet, we have so far managed to deliver continuous training and development of the nurses in the A&E. Maintaining a core group of nurses in the department, fostering team building with all staff (especially nurses and doctors), and ensuring continuing emergency nursing education has led to a transformation of emergency nursing care in the A&E. There hasn’t been a report of a significant error in medical nursing care over the past eight months. This shows the magnitude of growth of the emergency nurses in the A&E.
I must congratulate the nurses of the A&E for their commitment towards the development of emergency patient care. They have raised the bar in the A&E and I urge them to continue to strive for excellence and not be deterred during the challenging times. I am proud to have such a hardworking staff and I look forward to us striving together to continue to develop emergency medical care for our patients. We strengthen our efforts for our patients. For them what we do matters, and what matters is what should do.
(Dr Zulfikar Bux is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at the Vanderbilt University and Medical Center and holds the position of Head of the Georgetown Public Hospital’s Accident and Emergency Department.)
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