Accountability issues in an English emergency department: A nursing perspective
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Date
2020-05-27Abstract
Introduction: Nurses confront doubts about their accountability and how it affects their clinical practice daily in
the complex environment of an emergency department. Therefore, nurses’ experiences can provide vital information
about the decisions and dilemmas in clinical practice that affect both healthcare professionals and
patients alike.
Aim: The aim of this study was to explore the perceptions of nursing staff in an English emergency department in
relation to their ethical, legal and professional accountability.
Methods: Ethnographic content analysis was used to analyse 34 semi-structured interviews from registered
nurses working in an emergency department.
Results: There were five categories found during the coding process: nursing care, staff interactions, legal and
professional accountability, decision-making process and ethics and values.
Conclusion: Several issues related to nursing accountability were found, including the effects of nursing
shortages and the reasoning behind multidiscipinary team conflicts. Different approaches of individual and
institutional accountability, the evolution of Benner’s nursing model and nursing value progression was also
identified as key issues. All these phenomena affect nursing accountability in different ways, so their comprehension
is paramount to understand and influence them to benefit both patients and nurses.
Description
University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust
University of Murcia, Spain
The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.
Citation : Rubio-Navarro A, Garcia-Capilla DJ, Torralba-Madrid MJ and Rutty J (2020) Accountability issues in an English emergency department: A nursing perspective. International Emergency Nursing, 51, 100881
ISSN : 1755-599X
Research Institute : Institute of Health, Health Policy and Social Care
Peer Reviewed : Yes