An examination of ESI triage scoring accuracy in relationship to ED nursing attitudes and experience.

Introduction: This research was designed to examine if there is a difference in nurse attitudes and experience for those who assign Emergency Severity Index (ESI) scores accurately and those who do not assign ESI scores accurately. Studies that have used ESI scoring discussed the role of experience, but have not specifically addressed how the amount of experience and attitude towards patients in triage affect the triage nurse's decision-making capabilities.

Methods: A descriptive, exploratory study design was used.

The "dance" continues ... evaluating differences in call bell use between patients in private rooms and patients in double rooms using ethnography.

Staff response to patient call bells is a communication issue that influences patient assessment of care quality and satisfaction. An ethnographic, grounded theory approach was used to examine nurses and nursing support staff perspectives about call bell use on single- versus double-patient-room units. We used the dance metaphor to describe differences in staff behaviors related to answering call bells on the 2 units in the study.

Dance of the call bells: using ethnography to evaluate patient satisfaction with quality of care.

Ethnographic methods can provide insights into patients' perceptions of quality of care. We used ethnographic methods to examine problems related to answering patient call lights on one inpatient unit in the hospital. Communication through call bells consisted of 3 interrelated components.

Nonpunitive medication error reporting: 3-year findings from one hospital's Primum Non Nocere initiative.

Objective: To identify underlying practices and attitudes on medication error occurrences and reporting practices.

Background: In response to a hospital-wide quality improvement initiative, a task force was formed to facilitate a nonpunitive culture toward reporting medication errors. To identify underlying practices and attitudes on medication errors and medication error reporting, a baseline survey was conducted.

Research on the frontlines of healthcare: a cooperative learning approach.

Background: Evidence-based practice is a common goal in hospitals, but learning about research so that the practice can be done is often challenging for clinicians.

Objectives: The aims of this study were to (a) develop a process that supports organizational and staff development while conducting research and (b) conduct a research study in the emergency department (ED) to examine patient population, satisfaction, and waiting room issues.

Methods: A multidisciplinary team of clinicians and scientists was assembled to learn and do research while evaluating the ED waiting room of a Level I trauma center.