Jones Tamsin, Shaban Ramon Z, Creedy Debra K
School of Nursing and Midwifery, Monash University, Peninsula Campus, Building E, McMahons Road, Frankston, PO Box 527, Frankston, Vic. 3199, Australia.
Menzies Health Institute Queensland, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Griffith University, University Drive, Meadowbrook, Logan, Qld 4131, Australia; Infection Control Department, Gold Coast University Hospital, Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service, 1 Hospital Blvd, Southport, Qld 4215, Australia.
Australas Emerg Nurs J. 2015 Nov;18(4):190-203. doi: 10.1016/j.aenj.2015.08.002. Epub 2015 Oct 3.
Presentations to emergency departments (EDs) and patient acuity continue to increase. Whilst strategies to deliver safe patient care in the ED are evolving, emergency nurses need to be well educated through specialist qualifications to enable delivery of advanced patient care. This paper presents a comparative analysis of available international practice and competency standards for nurses graduating from emergency nursing courses in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
CINAHL, Scopus, Ovid MEDLINE, and Embase were searched for papers, published in English, using the terms: 'emergency', 'accident and emergency', 'nursing', 'competency', 'practice standards', 'scope of practice', 'regulation', and 'specialist standards'. Secondary sources from relevant reference lists and professional websites were also searched.
The standards from the five countries were common across five domains: clinical expertise, communication, teamwork, resources and environment, and legal. None of the standards were specific to the emergency nursing graduate, and there was variability in the level of expertise required for which the standards apply.
The available practice standards demonstrated some commonality. Consideration of the utility of a universal framework for informing the development of emergency nursing practice standards and emergency nursing curriculum for nurses wishing to specialise is needed.
