Studying the Physicians' and Nurses' Attitudes towards the Role of the Emergency Medicine Specialists on the Performance of the Emergency Wards of the Training-Treatment Hospitals in Tehran, Iran

The emergency ward is an important part of a hospital given its central role in the health system. Undoubtedly, the use of efficient human resources in this field can boost the quality of services provided and thus patients' satisfaction. Therefore, this study is carried out aiming to determine the attitudes of physicians and nurses towards the role of the emergency medicine specialists on the performance of the emergency wards.

This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in the emergency department of educational hospitals in Tehran in 2019. Based on the cluster sampling method, 9 hospitals were selected and 501 nurses and physicians working in the emergency department participated in this study. A researcher-made questionnaire was employed to gather data and analyses were performed using t-test, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and Pearson correlation coefficient tests.

Based on the findings, the attitude of the participants towards the role of the emergency medicine specialists on patient safety, emergency performance indicators, quality of emergency services, and emergency ward management were favorable. In addition, expertise, organizational position, gender, and age were effective on the attitude of the participants towards the role of the emergency medicine specialists in the emergency ward (P = 0.001).

The results revealed that the attitude of physicians and nurses of emergency ward towards the role of the emergency medicine specialist was desirable. According to the results, physicians showed more favorable attitude compared to nurses towards the presence of an emergency medicine specialist.