Triaging patients in an emergency room essay

Triaging Patients in an emergency room Essay

Overview

Create a 15-minute oral presentation (3–4 pages) that examines the moral and ethical issues related to triaging patients in an emergency room.

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:

• Competency 1: Explain the effect of health care policies, legislation, and legal issues on health care delivery and patient outcomes. ◦Explain the health care policies that can affect emergency care.

◦Recommend evidence-based decision-making strategies nurses can use during triage.

• Competency 3: Apply professional nursing ethical standards and principles to the decision-making process. ◦Describe the moral and ethical challenges nurses can face when following hospital policies and protocols.

◦Explain how health care disparities impact treatment decisions.

• Competency 4: Communicate in a manner that is consistent with expectations of nursing professionals. ◦Write content clearly and logically, with correct use of grammar, punctuation, and mechanics.

◦Correctly format citations and references using APA style. triaging patients in an emergency room Essay.

Context

Working in an emergency room gives rise to ethical dilemmas. Due to time restraints and the patient’s cognitive impairment and lack of medical history, complications can and do occur. The nurse has very little time to get detailed patient information. He or she must make a quick assessment and take action based on hospital protocol. The organized chaos of the emergency room presents unique ethical challenge, which is why nurses are required to have knowledge of ethical concepts and principles.

Questions to Consider

To deepen your understanding, you are encouraged to consider the questions below and discuss them with a fellow learner, a work associate, an interested friend, or a member of your professional community.

• How does a triage nurse decide which patient gets seen first?
• How does health disparity affect the triage nurse’s decision making?
• What ethical and moral issues does the triage nurse take into account when making a decision?
• What are triage-level designations? triaging patients in an emergency room Essay.

Suggested Resources

Library Resources

The following e-books or articles from the Capella University Library are linked directly in this course:

• Tingle, J., & Cribb, A. (Eds.). (2014). Nursing law and ethics (4th ed.). Somerset, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
• Cranmer, P., & Nhemachena, J. (2013). Ethics for nurses: Theory and practice. Maidenhead, UK: Open University Press. triaging patients in an emergency room Essay.
• Aacharya, R. P., Gastmans, C., & Denier, Y. (2011). Emergency department triage: An ethical analysis. B MC Emergency Medicine, 11(1), 16–29.
• Guidet, B., Hejblum, G., & Joynt, G. (2013). Triage: What can we do to improve our practice? Intensive Care Medicine, 39(11), 2044–2046.
• Kangasniemi, M., & Haho, A. (2012). Human love – The inner essence of nursing ethics according to Estrid Rodhe. A study using the approach of history of ideas. Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences, 26(4), 803–810.
• Gastmans, C. (2013). Dignity-enhancing nursing care: A foundational ethical framework. Nursing Ethics, 20(2), 142–149.
• Domagala, S. E., & Vets, J. (2015). Emergency nursing triage: Keeping it safe. Journal of Emergency Nursing, 41(4), 313–316. triaging patients in an emergency room Essay.

Internet Resources

Access the following resources by clicking the links provided. Please note that URLs change frequently. Permissions for the following links have been either granted or deemed appropriate for educational use at the time of course publication.

• American Nurses Association. (2015). Code of ethics for nurses. Retrieved from http://www.nursingworld.org/codeofethics
• American Nurses Association. (n.d.). ANA position statements on ethics and human rights. Retrieved from http://www.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/EthicsStandards/Ethics-Position-Statements
• Vigil, J. M., Alcock, J., Coulombe, P., McPherson, L., Parshall, M., Murata, A., & Brislen, H. (2015). Ethnic disparities in emergency severity index scores among U.S. veteran’s affairs emergency department patients. PLoS One, 10(5). Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26024515. triaging patients in an emergency room Essay.

Assessment Instructions

Your supervisor has asked you to do a 15-minute oral presentation at a staff meeting about a recent issue that occurred at another hospital in town. Following an industrial accident, two patients arrived at the emergency room of that hospital at the same time, presenting with very similar inhalation injuries. The hospital received a great deal of negative press due to how the patients were triaged in the ER. Your supervisor would like you to use the specifics of this case to review triage procedures and best practices at your facility. Here are the details:

• One is a 32-year-old firefighter, Frank Jeffers, who is presenting with respiratory difficulties that he obtained while evacuating victims of an industrial accident. He is a married homeowner and father of two young boys. He has lived in the community all his life. He has full and comprehensive health insurance through his employer.
• The other is Brent Damascus, a 58-year-old man. Brent is presenting with respiratory difficulties with the same intensity as Mr. Jeffers above. He is well known at the hospital emergency room, as he is a frequent visitor with various complaints, including asthma, headaches, and tremors. He is homeless, unemployed, and uninsured. He stays many nights at the YMCA and eats lunch at the soup kitchen. He has lived in the community for over 10 years and has been arrested several times for petty theft. triaging patients in an emergency room Essay.

Preparation

Directions

Create a 15-minute presentation (3–4 pages) that examines the moral and ethical issues that occurred when triaging these two patients and the best practices for managing this in the future.

Divide your draft into a number of talking points that you can summarize neatly. Keep in mind that an oral presentation requires slightly different language than an essay. The aim is to communicate your message so keep sentences simple and focus on the key points you want to deliver. Address the following in your presentation:

• Explain the health care policies and protocols that are in place that direct triage care in an emergency situation.
• Explain how health care disparities impact treatment decisions.
• Identify the health care policies that are in place that direct care for uninsured individuals. Is there a difference in how these individuals are triaged?
• Describe the moral and ethical challenges nurses can face when following hospital policies and protocols. Is there a conflict when a severely injured person is also uninsured?
• Recommend evidence-based strategies that should be applied for managing the care of uninsured and indigent population. triaging patients in an emergency room Essay.

Additional Requirements

Your presentation should meet the following requirements:

• Written communication: Written communication should be free of errors that detract from the overall message.
• References: Include a reference section with a minimum of three references; a majority of these should be peer-reviewed sources. All resources should have been published within the last 5 years.
• APA format: Resources and citations should be formatted according to current APA style and formatting.
• Length: 3–4 typed, double-spaced pages, excluding title page and reference page. Use Microsoft Word to complete the assessment.
• Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12-point. triaging patients in an emergency room Essay.

Moral Dilemmas and Ethical Decisions Scoring Guide
CRITERIA NON-PERFORMANCE BASIC PROFICIENT DISTINGUISHED
Explain the
health care
policies that can
affect emergency
care.
Does not
explain the
health care
policies that can
affect
emergency
care.
Identifies but
does not explain
the health care
policies that can
affect
emergency care.
Explains the
health care
policies that can
affect emergency
care.
Explains the health
care policies that can
affect emergency care
and considers the effect
on patient experience.
Recommend
evidence-based
decision-making
strategies nurses
can use during
triage.
Does not
recommend
evidence-based
decision-making
strategies
nurses can use
during triage.
Identifies but
does not
recommend
evidence-based
decision-making
strategies
nurses can use
during triage.
Recommends
evidence-based
decision-making
strategies nurses
can use during
triage.
Recommends
evidence-based
decision-making
strategies nurses can
use during triage, and
explains how these
recommendations will
result in positive patient
outcomes.
Describe the
moral and ethical
challenges
nurses can face
when following
hospital policies
and protocols.
Does not
describe the
moral and
ethical
challenges
nurses can face
when following
hospital policies
and protocols.
Identifies but
does not
describe the
moral and
ethical
challenges
nurses can face
when following
hospital policies
and protocols.
Describes the
moral and ethical
challenges
nurses can face
when following
hospital policies
and protocols.
Describes the moral
and ethical challenges
nurses can face when
following hospital
policies and protocols,
and provides current
and relevant examples.
Explain how
health care
disparities
impact treatment
decisions.
Does not
explain how
health care
disparities can
impact
treatment
decisions.
Identifies but
does not explain
how health care
disparities can
impact treatment
decisions.
Explains how
health care
disparities can
impact treatment
decisions.
Explains how health
care disparities can
impact treatment
decisions and illustrates
with real-world
examples.
Write content
clearly and
logically, with
correct use of
grammar,
punctuation, and
mechanics.
Does not write
content clearly,
logically, or with
correct use of
grammar,
punctuation,
and mechanics.
Writes with
errors in clarity,
logic, grammar,
punctuation, or
mechanics.
Writes content
clearly and
logically, with
correct use of
grammar,
punctuation, and
mechanics.
Writes clearly and
logically, with correct
use of spelling,
grammar, punctuation,
and mechanics, and
uses relevant evidence
to support a central
idea.
Correctly format
citations and
references using
APA style.
Does not format
citations and
references
Formats
citations and
references with
errors.
Correctly formats
citations and
references using
APA style.
Correctly formats
citations and references
using APA style.
©1998-2016 HealthWyse LLC 1 of 2
CRITERIA NON-PERFORMANCE BASIC PROFICIENT DISTINGUISHED
using APA
style.
Citations contain
a few errors.
Citations are free from
all errors.
©1998-2016 HealthWyse LLC 2 of 2

triaging patients in an emergency room Essay