Defining Research Funding Priorities: Emergency Nurses Association Foundation.

INTRODUCTION: Establishing research priorities provides focus and direction for limited resources among organizations and increasing impact in a focused area. The Emergency Nurses Association (ENA) Foundation sought to identify research priorities to guide funding decisions in its extramural grants program. METHODS: A modified Delphi research strategy was used to build consensus among ENA members and key leaders to determine research focus areas. Two Delphi rounds were conducted. In the first round, 81 emergency nurses participated in providing a list of potential research foci. In the second round, 221 emergency nurse leaders recommended which research topics should be prioritized. Descriptive statistics (frequencies, percentages) were calculated for each research topic. The topics were clustered together and rank ordered by frequency/percentage. RESULTS: Eight research priorities were identified: emergency department overcrowding, workplace violence, nurse well-being, appropriate use of the emergency department, new graduate training, mental health care, disaster training, and diversity, equity, and inclusion research. DISCUSSION: These identified research priorities offer direction for determining ENA Foundation funding priorities. In addition, the research priorities provide strategic direction to emergency nurse researchers to promote a rich depth of research that can make a meaningful impact to science and emergency nursing practice.

Beyond fall risk assessment: A case-control study in an Urban Medical Center.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To examine the characteristics of patients that fell and compare them with patients that did not fall and to seek differences between the two groups that might help better predict falls in future patients. BACKGROUND: It has been estimated that between 700,000 and one million inpatient falls occur yearly in hospitals in the United States, which results in an increase in healthcare costs of over $19 billion dollars per year. DESIGN: This was a case-control study employing a retrospective analysis of inpatient electronic health records. It includes records from 160 patients who experienced a fall after the implementation of the Johns Hopkins Fall Risk Assessment Tool, and 160 records of patient with similar fall risk scores that did not fall. METHODS: All fall and nonfall patient data for the database were obtained by one research team member, while systematic random selection of nonfall patient records was performed by three research team members as described below. Each patient was assigned a unique study code number which was entered into the research database. The final sample size was 302 patients. RESULTS: Patients who did not receive lorazepam within 12 hr of the fall risk assessment were less likely to fall than patients who did receive lorazepam. A statistical relationship was also found between toileting at the time of the fall and age. CONCLUSIONS: Better stratification of patient populations combined with astute nursing awareness may result in a further reduction in falls. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: The results indicate that the nursing assessment with respect to falls is critical to identifying fall-prone individuals who may score as a low-to-moderate fall risk. In addition, the administration of lorazepam should cue the nurse that fall precautions be implemented regardless of scored risk.