Psychiatric Emergency Nurses in the Emergency Department: The Success of the Winnipeg, Canada Experience

Evaluating Crisis Intervention Services for Youth within an Emergency Department: A View from Within

“…Eighty-seven ED staff (70%) completed surveys assessing their satisfaction with and perception of the Crisis Intervention Program, and reported being generally satisfied and confident in referring patients to this program. The 70 percent completion rate is high relative to other similar studies done in the field (e.g., Clarke et al, 2005;MacKay and Barrowclough, 2005;Robin et al, 1999;Stuart et al, 2003) and suggests that the service is viewed as important and worthy of investment. Further, the high return rate suggests that the results are representative of the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario ED staff's perspective and are at least partially generalizable to ED staff who serve paediatric emergency mental health patients more generally.…”

“…There is a dearth of literature examining the relationship between the two groups in paediatric settings. There has been some enquiry into this relationship in adult EDs (Clarke et al, 2005;Coristine et al, 2007). For instance, Clarke and colleagues (2005) surveyed nonpsychiatric ED staff across a number of hospitals in Winnipeg, Canada regarding their satisfaction with psychiatric emergency nurses who provide ED-based mental health emergency services.…”

“…With experience, the criteria of triaging might become easier to understand and apply, and in return, might increase the ED staff's confidence. Interestingly, nurses at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario appeared more confident with mental health triaging than nurses in other hospitals (Broadbent et al, 2002;Clarke et al, 2005;. …”

“…Insufficient resources for paediatric emergency mental health services has been widely acknowledged in the literature (e.g., Christodulu et al, 2002;Clarke et al, 2005;Hoyle and White, 2003a;2003b;Mahajan et al, 2007;Reder and Quan, 2004). CIW availability and coverage was the most frequently reported weakness of the Crisis…”

“…Enhancing availability and coverage of mental health services in ED is often suggested to improve ED functioning (Christodulu et al, 2002;Clarke et al, 2005;Coristine et al, 2007;Stewart et al, 2006). Key factors for implementing an ED based Crisis Intervention Program are clinician availability and coverage.…”