Improving the outcome of emergency department patients with a chief complaint of chest pain.

Preliminary data developed by the Health Care Financing Administration under its pilot cooperative cardiovascular screening project indicate that 50 percent of Medicare heart attack patients arriving in emergency departments who are appropriate for thrombolytic therapy do not receive it within the time period specified by the American College of Cardiology. Indicators developed for quality assurance monitoring and evaluation of a hospital emergency department prompted closer review of some cases. It was determined that a critical outcomes team using the principles of total quality management and the FOCUS-PDCA models should be empowered to deal with these issues.

Partner abuse against female nursing students.

Although nurses may have the necessary skills to plan care of clients in a variety of settings, experience and research demonstrate that nursing interventions with women victims of violence have been consistently inadequate. Of the 243 nursing students included in this study, 8% reported experiencing physical abuse, and 18.9% reported experiencing nonphysical abuse.

Emergency department nursing vascular assessment: a retrospective study.

Nursing documentation in any area is essential, but in the patient with severe trauma and vascular injury it may be critical in evaluating change. In vascular trauma the nursing assessment and documentation provides a baseline for comparison of pulses in the emergency department, the intensive care unit, and the general or vascular floor. A retrospective review of vascular trauma charts performed at St.