Grant will fund advanced training of emergency department nurses on the complexities of caring for the critically ill.
The UA Department of Emergency Medicine received a $30,000 grant from the Academic Insurance Funding, Limited (AIFL) Risk Management Process Improvement Fund. The grant will support the training of emergency nurses to provide the specialized care needed between the time patients come to the emergency department and are transferred to the intensive care unit.
A number of factors can determine the amount of time it takes for critically ill emergency department patients to transfer to an intensive care unit. This “boarded” time is a vulnerable one for the patient. The grant will support training of nurses to optimize care during the boarding period so that patients experience better outcomes.
“A collaborative ED–ICU model facilitates a seamless transition on the continuum of critical care, allowing for better care delivery and outcomes. In order for this to function, we need to provide our nurses with extensive critical care education,” says Jamie Moskowitz, RN, MSN, clinical nurse specialist.
“Optimizing care of these patients in the ED leads to decreased ICU admissions, level of care needed in the ICU, ICU length of stay, mortality and critical care costs,” says Jarrod Mosier, MD, assistant professor of emergency medicine and internal medicine, and director, EM/Critical Care. “We are working closely with our intensivists and ICU nursing colleagues to try to blur the lines between the ED and the ICU so that patients receive the optimal care from the time they enter the emergency department.”