From discussions with the Clinical Nurse Specialist, the team was informed that currently, ~80 of the 250 ED nurses have been trained to work in EC3. This represents only just over 30% of all potential nurses that could be eligible to work in EC3. With this in mind, and knowing efforts are already underway, the team recommends that cross-training within the ED should be ramped up in order to increase the number of nurses eligible to work in EC3. Based on the information gathered from the literature search, increasing the number of EC3 trained nurses (i.e. available nurses with that specialty training) will allow for more flexibility in nurse scheduling for EC3. It would also make the next recommendation more feasible to implement. Finally, the team found that a consistent barrier to filling beds in EC3, according to staff members, was the fear of being short staffed if a high acuity patient is admitted or a current patient’s acuity rapidly increases. To counteract this, the team proposes the use of flex staffing. Ideally, this staff” would consist of several nurses working in other units of the ED that “flex would be available (a type of inter-unit on-call system) should EC3 accept a patient that requires exceptionally high levels of nursing care. These nurses would then return to their home “flex” unit once the high acuity EC3 patient is stabilized and patient acuity for the unit can be met with the assigned EC3 staff. Expected Impact The overall expected impact of the implementation of the recommendations made by the student team are as follows: Improved nurse staffing levels Reduced EC3 patient classification confusion Higher numbers of patients accepted into EC3 Improved flexibility in nurse staffing to care for high acuity patients
From discussions with the Clinical Nurse Specialist, the team was informed that currently, ~80 of the 250 ED nurses have been trained to work in EC3. This represents only just over 30% of all potential nurses that could be eligible to work in EC3. With this in mind, and knowing efforts are already underway, the team recommends that cross-training within the ED should be ramped up in order to increase the number of nurses eligible to work in EC3. Based on the information gathered from the literature search, increasing the number of EC3 trained nurses (i.e. available nurses with that specialty training) will allow for more flexibility in nurse scheduling for EC3. It would also make the next recommendation more feasible to implement. Finally, the team found that a consistent barrier to filling beds in EC3, according to staff members, was the fear of being short staffed if a high acuity patient is admitted or a current patient’s acuity rapidly increases. To counteract this, the team proposes the use of flex staffing. Ideally, this “flex staff” would consist of several nurses working in other units of the ED that would be available (a type of inter-unit on-call system) should EC3 accept a patient that requires exceptionally high levels of nursing care. These “flex” nurses would then return to their home unit once the high acuity EC3 patient is stabilized and patient acuity for the unit can be met with the assigned EC3 staff. Expected Impact The overall expected impact of the implementation of the recommendations made by the student team are as follows: Improved nurse staffing levels Reduced EC3 patient classification confusion Higher numbers of patients accepted into EC3 Improved flexibility in nurse staffing to care for high acuity patients