5 December 2022
Where others see problems, we see solutions!
Ramping - A Nursing Solution – an ANMF (SA Branch) workshop featuring nurses and midwives from a variety of fields and backgrounds – was held at our Ridleyton offices last week.
The aim of the workshop was to identify solutions and strategies to ease pressure on emergency departments and in turn reduce ambulance queuing outside our hospitals, ultimately relieving pressure from our members.
“We wanted participants to share their experiences, bring ideas to the table, collaborate with colleagues from other hospitals and health care providers and let us know what is working and what is not working and the nurses in attendance certainly did that,” ANMF (SA Branch) CEO/Secretary Adj Associate Professor Elizabeth Dabars AM said.
“We are all aware of the significant issue of ramping both here in South Australia, interstate and overseas.
“Addressing ramping is not just about ambulances. It is about giving patients options other than the emergency department and finding ways to move patients out of hospital beds more efficiently.”
Two nurse practitioners from the Royal Adelaide Hospital said the introduction of a multi-disciplinary urgent care centre, adjacent to the emergency department, had the potential to divert 1700 minor-injury admissions in the space of a month.
“A properly staffed urgent care centre creates an opportunity for these patients to receive timely care, frees up much-needed capacity in the ED and reduces the number of ramped ambulances,” one of the nurses told the workshop.
“An urgent care centre would acknowledge the increase the presentations of minor injuries and illnesses, it would create a culturally-safe space for First Nations people and would free-up space in the ambulatory area of the emergency department.”
The virtual emergency department at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital is already making an impact on patient numbers presenting to the bricks and mortar ED.
Since August last year, its online presentations have saved more than 14 thousand young patients a trip to the hospital.
A re-think of admission procedures that would see patients bypass emergency departments and the impact of rapid assessments before EDs were also raised during the meeting.
The identified solutions from the workshop will be submitted to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing Chris Picton for further discussion.
Our Health Policy Position Statement (HPPS) will then be updated. For our current views on improving the capacity of our health system head to page 17 of our HPPS
here.
“I would like to thank all of the nurses and midwives that took part in this meeting; their first-hand experiences working within a health system under duress should make for compelling reading for Mr Picton,” Ms Dabars said.