Nursing Practices during the Readmission of an Elderly Patient in an Emergency and Critical Care Center

Abstract

This study aims to describe how nursing practices during the readmission of an elderly patient were established in the emergency and critical care center of an acute care hospital. The data were collected through fieldwork and analyzed using phenomenology. We focused on one specific interaction of a readmitted patient on a ventilator asking the nurse, “Have you got used to your work?” Before this interaction, the nurse who remembered the patient’s condition “went to the emergency department to understand the patient’s latest condition,” and it was confirmed that the patient also remembered the nurse. The practice of “talking with each other about the patient” was accomplished by leading the patient through a series of events, beginning with the nurse’s response to the ventilator alarm sound and ending with the nurse’s hand-off to another nurse at the end of the shift. Nurses who engage in this practice of patient participation and remember past patients are a vital resource in ensuring the smooth transfer of readmitted patients from the emergency room to the hospital ward for inpatient care.