ENA president-elect Denise King addresses the annual conference, held at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, September 26-29, 2007. King says, "This is our opportunity to change things. So many people see all the bad things going on."
"Lift Your Spirit": that was the theme of the Emergency Nurses Association (ENA) annual conference last September in Salt Lake City, Utah, and understandably so. The three most important issues ED nurses face are overcrowding, limited patient access, and violence against staff, and it's enough to bring anybody down, says new president-elect Denise King, MSN, RN, CEN.
In a recent interview King acknowledged the importance of nurses taking care of themselves, emotionally, spiritually, and physically-a message woven through last year's conference-but she said that the ENA is also working to improve things on a much larger scale. "We have a very active government affairs committee," says King, "that is working to help address these issues through a legislative channel. For example, we're in the process of putting together an advocacy packet to help ensure that each state has legislation making it a crime to assault an emergency health care worker." That crime is a misdemeanor in most states; the ENA is working to make it a felony.
King points out that access to care is a problem not only for the uninsured but also for those with health insurance who have difficulty obtaining emergency services because of the shrinking numbers of hospitals, EDs, and nurses and physicians. This leads to overcrowding and long ED waits, making for stressful environments for patients and staffs. These dynamics can eventually lead to violence against ED workers. The ENA is collaborating with other professional organizations such as the American College of Emergency Physicians and the American Association of Emergency Physicians, as well as emergency medical services and other nursing and governmental organizations to find solutions.
There is good news, King says. "This is our opportunity to change things. So many people see all the bad things going on, but it's our opportunity, while the focus is on emergency health care, to be the expert, to drive some of that change. I think nurses are the perfect people to do that."
Christine Moffa, MSN, RN, clinical editor