Identifying the obstacles facing emergency nurses regarding treating CTAS1 and CTAS2 in Saudi Arabia.

BACKGROUND: Emergency nurses play a pivotal role in delivering efficient emergency healthcare, yet they often encounter numerous challenges, especially while managing life-threatening cases, impacting both their well-being and patient satisfaction. This study seeks to identify the prevalent challenges faced by these nurses in Saudi hospitals when handling Canadian Triage and Acuity Scale (CTAS1 and CTAS2) cases, with the aim of mitigating or managing these issues in the future. METHODS: This study incorporated a mixed-method approach to identify obstacles in Emergency Department (ED) nursing treatment of CTAS1 and CTAS2 cases in two major Saudi Arabian hospitals. The research began with qualitative focus group interviews with expert ED nurses, followed by a quantitative survey to measure and explore relationships among the qualitative findings. Data analysis leveraged qualitative thematic analysis and principal component analysis, ensuring rigorous examination and validation of data to drive meaningful conclusions. FINDINGS: From expert interviews, key challenges for emergency nurses were identified, including resource management, communication, training compliance, and psychological factors. A survey of 172 nurses further distilled these into five major issues: patient care management, handling critical cases, administration support, patient care delay, and stress from patients' families. CONCLUSION: Through a mixed-method approach, this study pinpoints five pivotal challenges confronting emergency nurses in Saudi hospitals. These encompass difficulties in patient care management, the psychological toll of handling critical cases, inadequate administrative support, delays due to extended patient stays, and the stress induced by the presence of patients' families, all of which significantly impede emergency department efficiency and compromise nurse well-being.

Management of the COVID-19 pandemic: challenges, practices, and organizational support.

BACKGROUND: Health organizations currently face tremendous challenges in the management of the COVID-19 pandemic. To do this, successful and proven scientific practices and support are needed. AIM: This study aimed to explore the challenges, practices, and organizational support dealt with by nursing managers in the management of the COVID-19 pandemic. METHOD: A qualitative content analysis study evaluated 35 nursing managers in five university hospitals through a semi-structured interview. The Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research were used for this qualitative study. RESULTS: Three main themes emerged: Challenges include the development of a COVID-19 crisis management plan, a shortage in nursing staff, and psychological problems. Practices include; changes in work schedules for nursing staff, the exchange process, hospital preparation, and training and education. And organizational support includes both support at an organizational level and support at an individual level. CONCLUSION: This study revealed that nursing managers are faced with many challenges in the management of COVID-19, requiring good practices and organizational support. This study offers evidence for nursing managers to expect problems that may arise during the pandemic. RECOMMENDATIONS: The COVID-19 pandemic requires the development of an integrated plan, and this plan must be disseminated to the hospital's nursing and medical teams to better equip them for the current and future crises.