Rethinking Traditional Emergency Department Care Models in a Post-Coronavirus Disease-2019 World.
Publication/Presentation Date
7-1-2023
Abstract
As the nursing shortage in United States emergency departments has drastically worsened since the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, emergency departments have experienced increased rates of inpatient onboarding, higher rates of patients leaving without being seen, and declining patient satisfaction scores. This paper reviews the impacts of the coronavirus disease-2019 pandemic on the current nursing shortage and considers how various medical personnel (emergency nurse-extenders) can ameliorate operational challenges by redesigning emergency department systems. During the height of the coronavirus disease-2019 pandemic, the psychological effects of increased demand for emergency nurses coupled with the fear of coronavirus infection exacerbated nursing turnover rates. Health care workers who can be trained to augment the existing emergency department workforce include paramedics, Emergency Medical Technicians, emergency department technicians, ancillary staff, scribes, and motivated health sciences students. Utilizing non-nurse providers to fulfill tasks traditionally assigned to emergency nurses can improve emergency department flow and care delivery in a post-coronavirus disease-2019 world.
Volume
49
Issue
4
First Page
520
Last Page
529
ISSN
1527-2966
Published In/Presented At
Pourmand, A., Caggiula, A., Barnett, J., Ghassemi, M., & Shesser, R. (2023). Rethinking Traditional Emergency Department Care Models in a Post-Coronavirus Disease-2019 World. Journal of emergency nursing, 49(4), 520–529.e2. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jen.2023.02.008
Disciplines
Medicine and Health Sciences
PubMedID
37086252
Department(s)
Fellows and Residents
Document Type
Article