A new era for emergency care services in Ireland.

The National Emergency Medicine Programme Strategy is a comprehensive plan to improve and develop emergency care in Ireland. It recommends significant changes in how emergency care is organised and delivered so that patients can be confident that they will receive high quality, safe and timely care. Emergency nurses were involved in developing aspects of the strategy document and will play a crucial role in its implementation to ensure that patient outcomes and satisfaction with emergency care services in Ireland are improved.

Effectiveness of gerontologically informed nursing assessment and referral interventions for older persons attending the emergency department: systematic review.

Aim: This paper is a report of a literature review conducted to analyse data from published studies reporting nursing interventions targeted at older attendees of emergency departments (EDs), and to provide a critical appraisal of the evidence concerning their effectiveness.

Background: Attendance at hospital EDs by older persons presents opportunities for targeted interventions to address actual and potential problems associated with or in addition to the presenting problem. The evidence concerning the effectiveness of such interventions is mixed.