Compassion Fatigue, Nursing Workflow Featured in Latest Journal of Emergency Nursing

Issue also contains research on telehealth use with sexual assault patients

SCHAUMBURG, Ill. (November 22, 2022) – The Journal of Emergency Nursing recently released its November issue featuring research on sexual assault exams, pediatric patients with new-onset supraventricular tachycardia, behavioral health resources and more.

Nurse standard work, created by a team of nurses, is a defined set of processes and procedures that reduce variability within a nurse’s workflow. Implementation of nurse standard work was shown to reduce the average length of stay in the emergency department fast-track area from 205 minutes before project initiation to 150.4 minutes in the seven months following. The number of patients left without being seen decreased from 4.7 percent in October 2018 to 0.7 percent by March 2020.

In another study, 24 focus groups of emergency nurses at a Level I trauma center were consulted in late 2019 and early 2020 regarding the complexity of delivering patient care around opioid addiction and misuse. The findings highlight that emergency nurses working with patients with opioid use and/or substance use disorders deal with several negative emotional stressors and frustrations, which have increased their levels of compassion fatigue. These nurses agreed that improved management support with encouragement across all work shifts, debriefing opportunities and more education would help improve compassion.

Experiencing sexual assault can bring about anxiety for patients. One study set out to understand the worries associated with a sexual assault exam and if any of those concerns were alleviated or resolved during a telehealth-enabled sexual assault nurse examiner-led sexual assault examination. Surveys were collected from 74 adolescents and adults who obtained sexual assault care and analysis showed 88 to 100 percent resolution of worries related to being believed, judged, blamed or lacking control. Participants highly rated the quality of care received and stated the examination helped them feel better, suggesting this is an important step toward recovery and healing.

JEN is ENA’s peer-reviewed journal that is published quarterly and features original research and updates from the emergency nursing field, while also covering practice and professional issues. Nearly 50,000 ENA members receive the journal.

The November issue can be found online here.