Abstract
US emergency departments are facing a number of operational challenges related to
chronic shortages of registered nurses. Many of the tasks done by registered nurses
can be safely and successfully delegated to the emergency department technician (EDT),
particularly if a hospital's nursing and administrative leadership are affirmatively
engaged in a process to professionalize and train their EDT workforce. This paper
examines the state, Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations,
and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services regulatory landscape for the EDT, reviews
the literature on how hospital's utilize EDT's, discusses approaches to skills training,
and examines the need for profession standardization that enables job role expansion.
Keywords
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Article Info
Publication History
Published online: November 23, 2020
Accepted:
November 18,
2020
Received in revised form:
November 18,
2020
Received:
October 9,
2020
Publication stage
In Press Journal Pre-ProofIdentification
Copyright
© 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
