Nursing home nurses’ experiences of resident transfers to the emergency department: no empathy for our work environment difficulties

Abstract

Our findings on nurses' experiences during transfer of nursing home residents to the emergency department can be used to design more effective transfer policies such as telemedicine systems in Taiwan and other Asian countries or in those with large populations of Chinese immigrants.

Barriers to ethical nursing practice for older adults in long‐term care facilities

“…A review of literature revealed that long‐term care facilities with a higher staff‐to‐resident ratio, more nurses or nurse practitioners or more experienced nurses had lower rates of emergency department transfers (Dwyer et al., ). In addition, nurses who transferred older adults to emergency departments experienced discontinuity of their own professional roles (Tsai, Tsai, & Huang, ). These results highlight the importance of adequate staffing levels, the retention of experienced nursing staff and the provision of regular training for nursing staff about dealing with emergencies in long‐term care facilities to prevent unnecessary emergency department visits and patient deaths.…”

“…Many studies (e.g., Arendts & Howard, 2010;Dwyer, Stoelwinder, Gabbe, & Lowthian, 2015;Gruneir et al, 2010;Kessler, Williams, Moustoukas, & Pappas, 2013) (Dwyer et al, 2015). In addition, nurses who transferred older adults to emergency departments experienced discontinuity of their own professional roles (Tsai, Tsai, & Huang, 2016). These results highlight the importance of adequate staffing levels, the retention of experienced nursing staff and the provision of regular training for nursing staff about dealing with emergencies in long-term care facilities to prevent unnecessary emergency department visits and patient deaths.…”

Development, validation and testing of a nursing home to emergency room transfer checklist

“…Initial items for the instrument were obtained from qualitative interviews conducted with NH nurses ( n = 25) about their experiences with transfers of NH residents to the ER (Tsai, Tsai, & Huang, ). Based on the nurses’ responses, we constructed a pool of items considered important when transferring residents to the ER.…”

“…Discontinuity of care occurs when NH residents are transferred to the ER, which is a challenge for nurses (Tsai, Tsai, & Huang, 2016) resulting in discontinuity of family involvement, discontinuity in medical information and discontinuity of the nurses' professional role. Among these themes, discontinuity in medical information is one of the most common and serious issues for NH-to-ER transfers (Cwinn et al, 2009;Finn et al, 2006;Terrell & Miller, 2006).…”

Evaluation of an aged care nurse practitioner service: quality of care within a residential aged care facility hospital avoidance service

“…When a resident requires transfer to an acute care facility, family involvement may be only brief or absent contributing to a fragmented traumatic experience for both the resident and the family [36, 46, 58]. We found the process where the NPs spend time with residents and the family to formulate collaborative plans of care, and actively navigate between professional groups and across healthcare sectors to implement these plans minimised negative aspects transfer experience.…”