Readiness of Emergency Nurses in the Care of Trauma Patients and Related Factors

One of the main reasons for the poor performance of emergency nurses in providing care to trauma patients is the lack of readiness, knowledge and relevant skills of them. It is important to have a periodic evaluation of the readiness of emergency nurses. The aim of this study was to determine the readiness of emergency nurses in the care of trauma patients based on the ATLS index and related factors.

In this descriptive-cross-sectional study, 230 nurses working in the emergency department of three hospitals affiliated to Qom University of Medical Sciences participated with an easy and convenience sampling method in 2019. Data were collected using demographic information tools and nurses' readiness to care for a trauma patient. Readiness tools included areas such as triage, primary assessment, secondary assessment of head-to-foot, and trauma patient care in special circumstances. The overall score of the preparation and each of its areas were 1-5. Data analysis was performed using SPSS software version 22 and descriptive statistics and independent T-tests, ANOVA and Pearson correlation coefficient. The statistical significance level for all tests was considered to be 0.05.

The mean and standard deviation of the readiness of emergency nurses score was 3/55±0/60. The "triage" and "abdominal examination" in the secondary assessment was the weakest (mean 2.87) and "stripping the patient's body and assessing the whole body" (mean 4.19) in the primary assessment and "caring for trauma patients with special conditions" was the strongest area for nurses' readiness. Nurses' readiness was significantly associated with education, sources of information, passing educational courses, age, general and emergency work experience (P<0/05).

The readiness of emergency nurses to care for trauma patients was more than two-thirds of the total and was considered as good scores. Nursing service managers should design and implement training programs to strengthen nurses' weaknesses and ultimately increase the quality of nursing care and the safety level of trauma patients.