GOING WITH THE FLOW

Tuesday, 17 October, 2017

Beaumont Hospital and its Emergency Department (ED) have been providing Emergency Medical services to the people of North County Dublin for the past 30 years.The ED now sees over 53,000 people annually, many of whom are elderly and frail. The age profile of patients being admitted is increasing due to an aging population in the catchment area. In fact, the increased population of older people living in Ireland is occurring at a greater rate in North Dublin than in any other part of the city or indeed the rest of the country. In 1986, only 5% of Dublin's over 65's population lived in Beaumont Hospital's catchment area. However, by 2014, that figure had increased to 24%.

Pauline Moore, CNM3 in the ED, works to provide professional and clinical leadership to her team and to develop a high quality nursing service in the ED. She explains, "While there are plans to develop a new ED in Beaumont in coming years, our internal focus has been on reorganising and upskilling staff so that they have the unique skills
required to work in emergency medicine.

Our long-standing education programme offers a clear career pathway to staff starting out or advancing their careers through our Foundation and Higher Diploma in Emergency Nursing. We want to equip our staff with the professional skills to work in this high pressured environment and to deliver qualitycare to our patients. Staff recruitment and retention is also my area of responsibility and we are happy to talk to anyone interested in coming to work with us or returning here if they have been nursing abroad.

Part of my role is also to be the face of the ED - liaising with CNMs, staff nurses, other hospital staff and external agencies. I act as a link between the Department and rest of the hospital, developing relationships and ensuring that patients have a smooth onward progression from the ED".

In conclusion, she says, "Together with the other senior nurses and all my other colleagues in the ED, we're consistently working to adopt and implement advances in emergency medicine. The huge improvements we've made have already translated into shorter waiting times and a better quality healthcare experience for patients".

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