Factors Affecting Nurses' Performance in Emergency Unit

Abstract

Background: Emergency Unit / Emergency Room (ER), the department of hospital responsible for the provision of medical and surgical care to patients arriving at the hospital in need of immediate care. Aim of the study: Assess factors affecting nurses' performance in emergency unit. Study design: a descriptive exploratory design was used. Subjects: Convenience sample of 40 nurses were recruited for conducting this study. Setting: This study was conducted in emergency unit at Ain Shams University Hospital. Tools: consisted of (1) Nurses' self administered questionnaire to assess nurses' knowledge, and factors affecting their performance in emergency unit, (2) Nurses' practice observational checklists to assess nurses' practice regarding most common procedure in emergency unit. The Results of this study revealed that: 60.5 % of nurses had unsatisfactory level of knowledge, 90.0 % of them had inadequate level of practice, and 100.0 % of them agreed on personnel factors affecting their work negatively in emergency unit. Conclusion : This study concluded that; more than half of the nurses under the current study had unsatisfactory level of knowledge regarding emergency unit, and almost all the nurses agreed that the personnel factors affect their performance negatively in emergency unit. Moreover the majority of the nurses had inadequate level of practice regarding emergency unit. Recommendation: This study recommended; Continuous evaluation of nurses' knowledge and practice is essential to identify nurses' needs and factors affecting their performance in emergency unit. Developing continuing educational programs including evidence based guidelines based on needs assessment for nurses.