Thousands of emergency nurses from around the world are convening Sept. 30 – Oct. 3 at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver for the Emergency Nursing Association’s (ENA) Emergency Nursing 2022.
From stroke codes and triage to behavioral care and transgender patients, the ENA conference highlights key health care issues.
Attendees have access to hands-on clinical simulations and more than 100 presentations and can network with emergency department peers from around the world.
See the complete list of Emergency Nursing 2022 sessions here.
ENA is ready to reconnect and recharge with you Sept. 30-Oct. 3 during the world’s largest gathering of emergency nursing professionals at Emergency Nursing 2022 in Denver
ENA’s Emergency Nursing 2022 Highlights
Unintentional Cannabinoid Ingestion in Children
With the continued legalization of marijuana, unintentional ingestion of cannabinoids by young children is on the rise. These edibles often come in attractive forms to children that can easily be mistaken for candy as they are brightly colored and something they may typically eat, for example, gummies. Because of this, children are likely to take a much higher dose than recommended, leading to vomiting, dizziness, tachycardia, difficulty breathing, drowsiness, and confusion.
According to presenter Justin Milici, the best thing to prevent this at home is to keep edibles out of reach or locked away.
Should I Call a Stroke Code for This? Subtle but Devastating Stroke Symptoms
Only some strokes present with one-sided weakness. Some devastating strokes only garner a 1-2 on the NIH Stroke Scale. Over 80 percent of strokes are clot strokes and can be fixed if caught in time. Remember, BE FAST to help identify a stroke – Balance, Eyesight, Face, Arm/Hand, Speech, and Time.
Presenter Joan Somes takes emergency nurses through real-life scenarios to raise awareness of the subtle stroke symptoms she has picked up on during her 46-year nursing and nurse educator career.
Guiding Emergency Room Nurses Through Sexual Assault Exams Using Telehealth
Many emergency departments, especially rural areas, do not have Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners available at all times to conduct Medical Forensic Exams when a victim of sexual assault comes into an emergency department. As a result, often, the patients are transferred to other hospitals, which can add to the trauma and delay time-sensitive treatment and evidence collection.
Kimberly Zemanek and Kayce Ward aim to change that with the Texas Teleforensic Remote Assistance Center, Tex-TRAC, which connects hospitals with expert SANEs virtually and joins with communities as part of their community launch with each ED partner.
Supporting Transgender Patients in Healthcare
For some going to the ED can be a scary experience. For transgender patients, that feeling is magnified because they’re afraid of being misgendered, further stigmatized, or not receiving appropriate treatment.
Presenter Connor Wesley shares the language used to talk about the transgender community, discuss health disparities and provide tools to help ED nurses better support transgender patients. Connor created this presentation after not getting much transgender education in nursing school. He’s now been giving it for more than ten years.
Critical Topics in Behavioral Care for Nursing
A Journal of Emergency Nursing study showed that 60 percent of ED nurses have no specific training in assessing behavioral health patients. As a result, some nurses believe that EDs are not the right place for psychiatric emergencies, but there is nowhere else for them to go in many cases.
The six presenters on the Coalition of Psychiatric Emergencies have a wealth of knowledge and experience they’ll share with emergency nurses to better equip them to handle behavioral health patients in the ED, including de-escalating agitated patients and approaches to self-harm. But, of course, nurses are not immune to behavioral health issues, so the coalition will also go over how to prevent burnout so nurses can be at their best.
Ah Ha Ha Ha Staying Alive … Triage Education that Makes a Difference in Our New World
We must keep trying to improve until there are zero errors in health care, says presenter Deena Brecher. By analyzing over a million triage records, common acuity assignment errors emerge that significantly affect patient outcomes. For example, the average ED nurse was only 60 percent accurate in their triage assessment.
Deena shares how to use your EDs data to improve triage assessment by focusing on presenting symptoms and recognizing a high-risk patient instead of trying to diagnose immediately.
Disaster Nursing – What You Need to Know: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
Nurses are among the first to step up and assist those in need when disaster strikes. As Kathy Van Dusen recounts one of her deployments, the whole town was evacuating, trying to get out, and we were going in.
Disaster nurses provide high-quality rapid-response medical care when public health, natural disasters, and medical emergencies overwhelm state, local, tribal, or international resources. This presentation will cover how to become a disaster nurse and the types of deployments to the various injuries seen.
Register for the ENA’s Emergency Nursing 2022 here.
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