Author(s)

Natsuko Makino¹, Keiko Nakamura², Koji Ishikawa³, Miki Sugawara⁴

¹Department of Nursing, School of Health Sciences, Sapporo Medical University, Sapporo, Japan.
²Graduate School of Nursing, Sapporo City University, Sapporo, Japan.
³Department of Nursing, Hokkaido University of Science, Sapporo, Japan.
⁴School of Nursing, Sapporo City University, Sapporo, Japan.

The objective of this study was to determine the difficulties experienced in trauma nursing practice by expert emergency nurses in Japan. Ten nurses who worked at emergency and critical care centers in Japan were directly involved in nursing patients were selected by purposive sampling and underwent semi-structured interviews regarding the difficulties they experienced in trauma nursing. The nurses were specialists in critical care nursing or were certified emergency nurses. The interview responses were analyzed by the qualitative descriptive method. The following six categories of difficulties associated with the direct care of trauma patients and their family members encountered in trauma nursing practice were identified: [Initial handling of highly urgent trauma patients], [Understanding and observing the condition of patients who are in the treatment stage], [Judging when to transition to end-stage care for patients difficult to save], [Mitigating suffering and expanding safe activities of daily living for trauma patients], [Transitional care with a long-term perspective for trauma patients], and [Relationships with the family members of patients who died]. Three categories of difficulties related to the role of the expert nurse in trauma nursing practice were identified: [Person-to-person coordination and cooperation for a trauma patient], [Playing an educational role for the nursing staff], and [Pursuing expertise in trauma nursing and gaining empirical knowledge]. The findings suggested a need to establish systems for training and consultative support and opportunities to create meaning by reflecting on fulfillment and nursing practice.

Trauma Nursing Practice, Difficulties, Expert Nurse, Emergency Care

Makino, N. , Nakamura, K. , Ishikawa, K. and Sugawara, M. (2019) Difficulties Experienced in Trauma Nursing Practice by Expert Emergency Nurses in Japan. Open Journal of Nursing, 9, 1073-1087. doi: 10.4236/ojn.2019.910079.