Collaborative leadership to empower nurses to implement ABCDE emergency nursing in an emergency department in Nepal

Purpose Emergency medicine can save lives and in 2018 the World Health Assembly passed resolution 72.16 ensuring the role of emergency care in all health systems. With a continued global shortage of emergency physicians, with many low-medium-income countries (LMIC) still to develop emergency medicine as a speciality, the role of emergency nurses is critical to deliver the WHO Emergency Care System Framework (WHO, 2018). Emergency medicine doctors play a critical role in collaborating with nurses, in emergency medicine where nurses are often the first clinicians are often the first clinicians to interact with patients in emergency care settings, making up the majority of health-care professionals in LMIC (Mamalelala, 2024). Yet emergency nursing has yet to become established in Nepal, where nurses are often recruited to emergency departments, without having received any training in emergency or critical care treatment and management. The purpose of this paper is to outline a collaborative leadership approach to co-design an airway, breathing, circulation, disability, exposure (ABCDE) structured approach to an emergency nursing training module designed for nurses to feel empowered in the emergency department and to report on its findings. Design/methodology/approach This study draws upon mixed methodology research, enrolling 30 nurses (n = 30) from an emergency department in a tertiary hospital in Nepal through three stages of the project: Stage 1: training module co-design, collaborative leadership exploring the rationale for a training module and core features of design based on the ABCDE of emergency medicine; Stage 2: quantitative data were collected to assess baseline pre- and post-intervention knowledge and follow-up knowledge assessment at 30 and 45 days; Stage 3: qualitative data were collected with 24/30 (80%) nurses to evaluate the impact and application of the nurses ABCDE learning 7 months post-training. The qualitative survey was undertaken using online Google Forms. Findings Nurses were fully engaged in the co-design and collaboration of the development of an ABCDE training module which was delivered over 3 h. Full engagement was secured from all nurses in the department, and there were statistically significant advances in ABCDE emergency knowledge from the baseline, however, this knowledge began to decrease at 30 and 45 days. A follow-up qualitative survey was distributed to nurses seven months after training with an 80% return rate, which reported a range of examples of how nurses were continuing to apply their learning in practice. Originality/value This training module for emergency nurses was designed collaboratively from the “bottom up” in a tertiary hospital in Nepal, recognising the need to develop emergency nursing in the emergency department. The data revealed promising findings, while knowledge decreased from the post-training questionnaire, qualitative evidence revealed significant changes in practice, with the greatest reported change in the management of the airway. While this training module has made a difference in the quality of care provided, there is a need for a country-wide strategy in this area otherwise it is likely that such an initiative will only be developed by hospitals at a local level (Lecky, 2014). Education and training initiatives for nurses that focus on an evidence-based approach to clinical practice can bridge the workforce gap in the short term, however, the Government of Nepal must decide on establishing a recognised post-graduate sub-specialty in emergency nursing, the duration of training, who should be trained and what curriculum should be followed (Lecky, 2014).