Teamwork
The Department of Emergency Medicine has implemented a program in which first-year emergency medicine residents shadow nurses in adult and pediatric emergency rooms. Physician assistants completing a year of emergency medicine training also participate.
“The essential idea is team-building,” said Dr. Larry Mellick, director of the department’s residency program. “We think this experience will give greater insight into how to work interdependently with nurses and thereby provide better overall care to our patients.”
Each resident spends a shift shadowing a nurse through the three main emergency room areas: triage, critical care and acute care. “They do things nurses would traditionally do, like set up chest tube drainage systems, arterial or central venous line systems, run EKGs or start peripheral lines,” Dr. Mellick said. “This gives them an opportunity to walk in the shoes of their nursing colleagues.”
He thinks cross-training will enhance understanding and appreciation of the roles of different health care providers.