Emergency Department Staff And Nursing Practice: A Comparative Review of Roles, Challenges, and Patient Outcomes

Abstract

In the emergency department (ED), a fast-paced, high-stakes healthcare environment that relies on effective collaboration among physicians, nurses and allied health professionals to ensure timely safe patient-centered care. While the ultimate goal of emergency care is to achieve better clinical outcomes, tensions exist between frontline (emergency department staff) and middle management level decision-makers who influence the delivery of best-available practice at the point-of-care. The purpose of this review is to comparing the roles, responsibilities, challenges and contribution in emergency department staff mainly focusing on their nursing practice role as well as assessing its consequences on patient outcomes. Method A keyword search for published literature pertaining to emergency nursing, key staff within the ED, interdisciplinary teamwork in patient outcomes and workforce challenges of clinical practitioners working on those settings was conducted across multiple databases (including PubMed Scopus Web of Science CINAHL Google Scholar). The search was confined to relevant systematic reviews, observational studies clinical guidelines and policy documents published in English with a concept synthesis approach employed for recognizing recurring themes and evidence-based practice.