Caring for Cambodian refugees in the emergency department

Forensic patients hiding in full view

Violence has been identified as one of the leading public health hazards of our time. The majority of the victims of violence are being seen in emergency departments and critical care areas. This compels today's nurse to be educated in the proper recognition, interpretation, collection, documentation, and photo-documentation of the ramifications of violence and the associated forensic evidence. The categorization of these patients should be determined by the critical care nurse. Categorical determinations will ensure that the nurse develops a systematic, algorithmic management plan for any client with potential forensic implications associated with their care. It will also assist the nurse in recognizing the mandated reporting that must be completed in certain instances. The additional benefit is to determine what educational needs are required by the critical care nurse staff to posit the forensic population; and, to consider what future research must be accomplished in order to better serve this unique clientele.

Patient Satisfaction of Emergency Nursing Care in the United States, Slovenia, and Australia

Patient satisfaction with nursing care in the emergency department (ED) was measured in 616 patients in California and Kentucky in the United States, Slovenia, and rural and urban Victoria in Australia. Patients were almost equally divided between men and women, primarily white, with a mean age of 44. They responded to the caring and teaching subscales of the Consumer Emergency Care Satisfaction Scale (CECSS). While scores indicated no differences in caring, the US and Slovenian groups reported greater satisfaction with teaching than did the Australian group. The subscale alpha coefficients were .87 for the caring subscale and .92 for the teaching subscale.

Great suffering, great compassion: a transcultural opportunity for school nurses caring for Cambodian refugee children

The cultural ways of Cambodian refugee families, combined with the physical and psychological health problems inherent in their refugee experience, present opportunities for nurses to engage in transcultural nursing. The purpose of this descriptive study was to understand the nature and meaning of a school district cross-cultural team's experiences of providing health care for children of Cambodian refugee families. Focus group interviews with school nurses and Cambodian liaisons were conducted utilizing S. M. Dobson's conceptual framework of transcultural health visiting as a guiding theoretical perspective. Transcultural and intracultural reciprocity as experienced with Cambodian families are explored and described. Concrete suggestions for fostering transcultural reciprocity with Cambodian refugee families are provided.