Presentation Interest Groups

Sample Answer

Emergency Nurses Association

Emergency nurses association (ENA) is a premier professional nursing association committed to defining the future of emergency nursing. It achieves this through education, advocacy, research, innovation, and leadership (Milbrath & Snyder, 2021).

It’s roles include:

• Advocating for patient safety
• Developing industry-leading practice standards and guidelines
• Guiding emergency healthcare public policy (Milbrath & Snyder, 2021).

ENA has more than 42,000 members globally.

ENA members have expertise in triage, patient care, disaster preparedness, and all areas of emergency care.

How ENA Is Pushing Its Agenda

ENA pushes its agenda in emergency nursing through education, advocacy, research, innovation, and leadership.

ENA focuses on advocating and advancing legislation that fosters a healthy practice environment. This includes bills that reduce workplace violence, improve mental health and well-being for front-line healthcare workers, ensure adequate PPE supplies, and protect healthcare workers from COVID-19 (Milbrath & Snyder, 2021). ENA has advocated for workplace protections and robust improvements to the supply chain and Strategic National Stockpile to ensure adequate supplies of critical gear like PPEs.

Concerning reducing violence against Emergency nurses, ENA has continuously advocated for state laws that strengthen the criminal penalties for assaulting or physically attacking emergency nurses and other healthcare workers in EDs (Milbrath & Snyder, 2021). ENA has supported federal legislation and programs targeted at decreasing workplace injuries and illnesses for healthcare personnel and patients while enhancing the safety of patient care delivery. Furthermore, ENA supports policies that empower nurses to develop appropriate staffing plans specific to each emergency department.

Key Obstacles and Spending

The key obstacles faced by ENA are:

1. Violence against Emergency nurses by patients and relatives Violence in emergency departments has increasingly worsened and emergency nurses are mainly vulnerable (Navarroli, 2022).
2. Inadequate PPEs for emergency nurses.
3. Burnout, anxiety, and depression among emergency nurses Insecure working conditions, risk of infectious disease, and violence towards emergency nurses contribute to mental health issues and high suicide rates.
4. Workplace injury among emergency nurses Factors that lead to this include ergonomic injuries, needle stick injuries, and an aging workforce (Navarroli, 2022).

ENA maintained a membership of 50,000 and overall membership retention increased for the third consecutive year.

ENA spending includes supplying nurses with resources during the COVID-19 pandemic to support them in their work on the front line (Navarroli, 2022).
Its total program service expenses in 2021 were $14,726,588.

ENA financially supports the American Nurses Foundation, ANA, APNA, and AACN on the well-being initiative to offer resources that support the mental health and resilience of nurses (Emergency Nurses Association, n.d.).

Position Statements

ENA’s mission is to advocate for patient safety and excellence in emergency nursing practice.

ENA believes that the ED’s primary customers are patients and family/significant others. ENA believes that respect for the diversity of patients and all clients of the ED is intrinsic in emergency nursing practice and emergency care (Carman, 2020).

ENA believes that the actions and interactions of the emergency nurse constantly demonstrate efforts to meet clients’ needs for respect and dignity (Carman, 2020).

ENA appreciates that there are a lot of internal and external clients of the ED who are vital to the successful delivery of quality services.

Testimony

ENA-supported Programs have been included in the House-passed Funding Legislation, SCHAUMBURG, Ill. (July 29, 2021) The House of Representatives enacted the FY 2022 Labor, Health & Human Services, and Education Appropriations Bill which includes essential funding priorities supported by the ENA (Emergency Nurses Association, n.d.).

The funding increases the following ENA-priority programs:

1. Emergency Medical Services for Children
2. MISSION ZERO – a program that enhances trauma care by providing grants to incorporate military trauma care providers into civilian trauma centers.
3. Title VIII Nursing Workforce Development Programs – Offers scholarships and loans for nursing students and funds nursing education institutions.
4. National Institute for Nursing Research.

ENA previously took the lead with “nurses together connecting through conversations,” a free resource that provides nurses the opportunity to virtually connect with more than 3,700 emergency nurses. The nurses attended the fully virtual emergency nursing 2021 annual conference which featured dozens of education sessions and peer networking engagement (Emergency Nurses Association, n.d.).

References

• Carman, M. J. (2020). Commentary on Emergency Nurses Association’s 2019 “Position Statement Advanced Practice Registered Nurses in the Emergency Care Setting”. Journal of Emergency Nursing, 46(2), 139-140. https //doi.org/10.1016/j.jen.2020.01.003
• Emergency Nurses Association. (n.d.). Public Policy Agenda 2022/2023. enaorg. https //www.ena.org/government-relations/public-policy-agenda
• Milbrath, G., & Snyder, A. (2021). The emergency nurses association 50 years of advocacy and advancement. Journal of emergency nursing, 47(2), 224-238. https //doi.org/10.1016/j.jen.2020.11.007
• Navarroli, J. E. (2022). Emergency Nurses Association position statement medication management and reconciliation in the emergency setting. Journal of Emergency Nursing, 48(1), 88-93. https //doi.org/10.1016/j.jen.2021.10.003