Intensive and Critical Care Nursing
Volume 22, Issue 3 , Pages 138-143 , June 2006

Voices from the floor: Nurses’ perceptions of the medical emergency team

  • Yenna Salamonson

      Affiliations

    • School of Nursing, Family and Community Health, University of Western Sydney, Campbelltown Campus, Building 7, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith South DC, New South Wales 1797, Australia
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author. Tel.: +61 2 4620 3322; fax: +61 2 46254252.
    • ,
  • Brigitte van Heere

      Affiliations

    • School of Nursing, Family and Community Health, University of Western Sydney, Campbelltown Campus, Building 7, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith South DC, New South Wales 1797, Australia
    • Tel.: +61 2 4620 3322; fax: +61 2 4625 4252.
    • ,
  • Bronwyn Everett

      Affiliations

    • School of Nursing, Family and Community Health, University of Western Sydney, Campbelltown Campus, Building 7, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith South DC, New South Wales 1797, Australia
    • Tel.: +61 2 9772 6382; fax: +61 2 9773 0998.
    • ,
  • Patricia Davidson

      Affiliations

    • Nursing Research Unit, School of Nursing, Family and Community Health, University of Western Sydney and Sydney West Area Health Service, Cumberland Hospital, PO Box 533, Wentworthville, New South Wales 2145, Australia
    • Tel.: +61 2 8838 2051; Mobile: 0404 036 416; fax: +61 2 9840 3629.

,Accepted 21 October 2005.

References 

  1. Bedell SE, Deitz DC, Leeman D, Delbanco TL. Incidence and characteristics of preventable iatrogenic cardiac arrests. J Am Med Assoc. 1991;65(21):2815–2820
  2. Bristow PJ, Hillman KM, Chey T, Daffurn K, Jacques TC, Norman SL, et al. Rates of in-hospital arrests, deaths and intensive care admissions: the effect of a medical emergency team. Med J Aust. 2000;173(5):236–240
  3. Buist MD, Moore GE, Bernard SA, Waxman BP, Anderson JN, Nguyen TV. Effects of a medical emergency team on reduction of incidence of and mortality from unexpected cardiac arrests in hospital: preliminary study. Br Med J. 2002;324(7334):387–390
  4. Cioffi J. Decision making by emergency nurses in triage assessments. Accid Emerg Nurs. 1998;6(4):184–191
  5. Cioffi J. Nurses’ experiences of making decisions to call emergency assistance to their patients. J Adv Nurs. 2000;32(1):108–114
  6. Cretikos M, Hillman K. The medical emergency team: does it really make a difference?. Intern Med J. 2003;33(11):511–514
  7. Daffurn K, Lee A, Hillman KM, Bishop GF, Bauman A. Do nurses know when to summon emergency assistance?. Intensive Crit Care Nurs. 1994;10(2):115–120
  8. DeVita MA, Braithwaite RS, Mahidhara R, Stuart S, Foraida M, Simmons RL. Use of medical emergency team responses to reduce hospital cardiopulmonary arrests. Qual Saf Health Care. 2004;13(4):251–254
  9. Foraida MI, DeVita MA, Braithwaite RS, Stuart SA, Brooks MM, Simmons RL. Improving the utilization of medical crisis teams (condition C) at an urban tertiary care hospital. J Crit Care. 2003;18(2):87–94
  10. Goldhill DR, Worthington L, Mulcahy A, Tarling M, Sumner A. The patient-at-risk team: identifying and managing seriously ill ward patients. Anaesthesia. 1999;54(9):853–860
  11. Hamers JP, van den Hout MA, Halfens RJ, Abu-Saad HH, Heijltjes AE. Differences in pain assessment and decisions regarding the administration of analgesics between novices, intermediates and experts in pediatric nursing. Int J Nurs Stud. 1997;34(5):325–334
  12. Hillman K. Critical care without walls. Curr Opin Crit Care. 2002;8(6):594–599
  13. Hillman K. Medical Emergency Team (MET) ABC, Radio National, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/helthrpt/stories/s1396034.htm; 2005 [retrieved 31 July 2005].
  14. Hillman K, Chen J, Brown D. A clinical model for health services research—the medical emergency team. J Crit Care. 2003;18(3):195–199
  15. Hillman K, Chen J, Cretikos M, Bellomo R, Brown D, Doig G, et al. Introduction of the medical emergency team (MET) system: a cluster-randomised controlled trial. Lancet. 2005;365(9477):2091–2097
  16. Hodgetts TJ, Kenward G, Vlackonikolis I, Payne S, Castle N, Crouch R, et al. Incidence, location and reasons for avoidable in-hospital cardiac arrest in a district general hospital. Resuscitation. 2002;54(2):115–123
  17. Institute for Healthcare Improvement. 100K Lives Campaign, http://www.ihi.org/IHI/Programs/Campaign/Campaign.htm?TabId=1; 2005 [retrieved 31 July 2005].
  18. Kumar R. Research methodology: a step-by-step guide for beginners. 2nd ed.. Sydney, NSW: Pearson Longman; 2005;
  19. Lee A, Bishop G, Hillman KM, Daffurn K. The medical emergency team. Anaesthesia Intensive Care. 1995;23(2):183–186
  20. McQuillan P, Pilkington S, Allan A, Taylor B, Short A, Morgan G, et al. Confidential inquiry into quality of care before admission to intensive care. Br Med J. 1998;316(7148):1853–1858
  21. O’Neill ES. Home care nurses’ inferences and decisions. Appl Nurs Res. 1997;10(1):33–38
  22. Salamonson Y, Kariyawasam A, van Heere B, O’Connor C. The evolutionary process of medical emergency team (MET) implementation: reduction in unanticipated ICU transfers. Resuscitation. 2001;49(2):135–141

PII: S0964-3397(05)00134-5

doi: 10.1016/j.iccn.2005.10.002

Intensive and Critical Care Nursing
Volume 22, Issue 3 , Pages 138-143 , June 2006

Article Tools

* Image Usage & Resolution