Communicating in Hospital Emergency Departments

This book presents The Emergency Communication Project s findings and in so doing, crafts a detailed picture and analysis of the way communication occurs and can sometimes fail in the critical and high-stress context of emergency health care. The focus of this work is on communication, this is integrated with detailed descriptions of the environment, observations, staffing, teamwork and networks of the ED as a means of setting the context for communication encounters. We begin our account of the communication demands of the ED by describing three main categories of context that impact on the ED. First, the material or practical factors that characterize the ED, that is its unique workplace and health care context. Second, the competing priorities of the ED context, that is the three distinct agendas of the hospital organization, the clinician and the patient. And third, the generic structure of the ED consultation, in which the patient s trajectory becomes organized into 4 distinct stages: triage, nursing admission, initial assessment stabilization, and management, diagnosis and disposition. By presenting a series of vignettes and case studies we demonstrate the complex communicative networks that exist and illustrate key risk moments within the ED consultation. Drawing on authentic examples of communication patterns within the ED, this book delivers comprehensive communication strategies for the healthcare professional that can be readily imported and integrated into everyday practice.§