During my time at the Emergency Department (ED), I gained a lot of experience and knowledge and sharpened my skills vital to providing care services to patients. Nurses play a significant role in the ED, being the first responders to patient injuries. Moreover, these nurses are prepared to assist other health professionals in responding to clinical emergencies while at the same time, maintaining high levels of nursing standards within the facility. As part of my clinical experience, I witnessed the role nurses play in the ED through communication, teamwork, professionalism, and leadership, how patient-centered care is promoted, and how they practice quality improvement and safety standards.
The Role of Communication and Teamwork
The emergency department is a beehive of activities, with nurses attending to patients with different degrees of injuries or emergencies, undertaking all these activities simultaneously. I witnessed how nurses and other healthcare staff utilized teamwork to streamline their activities, sharing their responsibilities, and patient information with one another. For instance, nurses were helping one another transfer patients from one department to another, administer first aid to new patients, prepare emergency procedures for the doctors, among other nurse-led activities. The success of such activities depends on how nurses communicate with one another. All the involved people were swift in relaying accurate information on the patients' progress, where they needed to go next, or what medication was already administered to them. Through teamwork and communication, the ED runs smoothly, minimizing medical errors in the long run.
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Professionalism and Leadership in the ED
Undoubtedly, all nurses in the ED demonstrated their professionalism towards the patients and other health professionals. All the nurses duly cared for their patients, encouraging them to remain strong throughout the treatment and recovery process. In one instance, a patient's family member became rude, shouting at the nurse in charge to hurry up with the first aid process. Calmly, the nurse acted professionally, reminding the individual that most medical errors do occur when procedures are rushed. The nurse also respected the person's claim, noting that the case was critical and needed a fast response. In another instance, a nurse confided in a fellow nurse on her inability to administer an injection to a baby. Luckily, the nurse demonstrated her professionalism and leadership skills, guiding the nurse in carrying out the procedure. Such acts of professionalism and leadership are vital to ED management, and nurses must be at the center of it all, abiding by their nursing standards of practice at all times.
Patient-Centered Care
Nurses, even those in the emergency department, are guided by a strict code of ethics that emphasizes the need for patient-centered care. Nurses use their knowledge, skills, and experience to treat patients in the best way possible, putting the patients` needs first. Prioritizing patient needs in the ED was highly observed, and nurses did not fall short of ensuring quality care and patient safety were upheld every time. At one time, I saw a doctor talk to a child who was afraid to get an IV injection. The child would scream each time the doctor approached her. By assuring her that the medical procedure was quick and painless, the child finally allowed the doctor to continue. Cross-cultural interactions also played out in the ED. More often, I would see nurses use interpreters to communicate with indigenous patients who could not speak English. Without practicing patient-centered care, the ED would have been a crisis in itself, as nurses would not care about their patients' well-being.
Quality Improvement and Safety Standards
Every clinical facility strives to improve the quality of care services and patient safety within their structure, with nurses required to educate patients on the significance of safety and quality in health care. Throughout my time in the ED, the management repeatedly informed us of the need to adhere to safety precautions set by the Joint Commission’s National Patient Safety Goals. Simple precautions such as cleaning and sanitizing hands before handling another patient, educating patients on safety rules within the facility, and wearing masks at all times, were some of the safety procedures the nurses strictly followed. However, there is more room to improve some safety practices to ensure both patients and nurses are free from unforeseen injuries.
Quality improvement is another aspect every healthcare facility wants to enforce. Technology is widely used in the ED to streamline service delivery, including using electronic health records to store and access patient information. Medical dispensation also utilizes technology to minimize errors and issuance of the wrong dosage. In the wards, new vital sign monitors were recently installed to help nurses keep track of essential patient readings. These monitors were interconnected to the facility's internal network, alerting doctors and nurses whenever a patient needs urgent attention. Ultimately, the incorporation of technological gadgets in the ED has improved the quality of service delivery by nurses, ensuring that patients are under constant monitoring. Moreover, communication and sharing of critical patient information are restricted to authorized personnel only. Arguably, with more technological integrations expected in the ED, communication, patient safety, quality improvement, and patient-centered care will continue to mature.
