It has just been announced by the American Nurses Association (ANA) that Emergency Nursing is now classified as a specialty. The ANA has also approved the Emergency Nurses Association’s (ENA) scope of practice and standards of practice. A report from Nurse.com states that emergency nursing is “the care of individiuals across the lifespan with percieved or actual physical or emotional alterations of health that are undiagnosed or require further interventions. Emergency nursing care is episodic, primary, typically short-term and occurs in a variety of settings” by the ANA. The report also accepted the ENA’s range of practice statement and the standards of practice for emergency nursing. These documents – written by the ENA – form the basis and outline the expectations of the roles of emergency nurses. ANA President Karen Daley says “The criteria for attaining specialty status are rigorous, so the recognition of emergency nursing as a specialty is a significant achievement. ANA’s role in this process is to protect patients by ensuring high quality in nursing practice and performance. This recognition tells the public that emergency nurses are dedicated to meeting high standards of care and patient safety.” Source
