Emergency nurses' perceptions of sedation management practices for critically ill intubated patients: a qualitative study

Wayne Varndell, Margaret Fry and Doug Elliott

Journal of Clinical Nursing, 2015, vol. 24, issue 21-22, 3286-3295

Abstract: Aims and objectives The aim of this study was to explore factors influencing practices in assessing, titrating and managing sedation for the critically ill intubated patients, from the perspective of emergency nurses. Background The number of critically ill patients presenting to Australian public Emergency Departments has increased by over 30% since 1980. Emergency nurses are increasingly relied upon to manage sedation of critically ill intubated patients. There is little evidence within international literature relating to how emergency nurses accomplish this. Design Descriptive qualitative study. Method A purposive sample of 15 experienced emergency nurses participated in semi‐structured face‐to‐face interviews. Transcribed data were analysed using thematic analysis. Results The qualitative analysis yielded five themes: becoming the resuscitation nurse; becoming confident as the resuscitation nurse; communicating about sedation; visual cues and the vanishing act. The safety and quality of sedation experienced by critically ill intubated patients in ED was the responsibility of emergency nurses, yet uncertainties and barriers were evident. Conclusion Patient continuity of care, including optimisation of comfort relies upon the knowledge, skills and expertise of the emergency nurse allocated to the resuscitation area. For most nurses transitioning into the resuscitation nurse role, it represents the first time they will have had contact with patients with highly complex needs and sedation. The use of self‐directed clinical workbooks and supervised clinical practice alone may be insufficient to adequately prepare nurses for the spectrum of critically ill sedated patients managed in the resuscitation area; a situation made worse in the presence of poor team communication. Relevance to clinical practice The findings of this study should assist in the development of policy and formal education of emergency nurses transitioning into the resuscitation area and the management of continuous intravenous sedation to critically ill mechanically ventilated patients is required.

Date: 2015
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.12932

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:jocnur:v:24:y:2015:i:21-22:p:3286-3295

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Clinical Nursing from John Wiley & Sons
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().