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Nursing resources in accident and emergency departments
Author(s) -
RGN J. E. DAVIS
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
journal of nursing management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.925
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1365-2834
pISSN - 0966-0429
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2834.1995.tb00061.x
Subject(s) - nursing , staffing , workload , nursing management , accident and emergency , emergency nursing , nurse administrator , medicine , nursing staff , medical emergency , medline , emergency department , management , political science , law , economics
Accident and emergency (A & E) departments need to be able to respond quickly to any person seeking their services, 24 hours a day. The underlying philosophy of starring A & E departments may be incongruent to today's nurse managers when attempting to provide a high quality, but cost‐effective nursing service. Accident and emergency departments, by their very nature, have an unpredictable, demand‐led workload, making the issue of effective staff utilization a complex one. A descriptive, comparative survey of issues affecting nurse staffing levels in A & E departments is presented. Personal, semi‐structured interviews were conducted with A & E nurse managers, and with senior clinical nurses. The study examines a wide range of variables, and their effect on nursing resources in A & E. It also identifies the complexities surrounding the calculation of nursing establishments in A & E, and provides a snapshot picture of how departments were staffed at the time of the survey. The study successfully highlights the key factors to be contemplated when deciding upon nursing resources in A & E, and the uncertainty and disparity which currently exist on the subject.