Background: The emergency resuscitation nurse is a challenging and specialised role
at the forefront of critical care practice in the emergency depatment. Despite their
extensive specialist knowledge and skill requirements, in Australia there is no statewide or nationally agreed approach to how to best provide training that meets a set of
fixed objectives and requisite skills for resuscitation nurses. Due to an ageing nursing
population and increasing workforce attrition, an efficacious accelerated pathway to
acquire specialist resuscitation nursing knowledge, is necessary.
Aim: The aim of this review is to identify, consolidate and summarise the available
evidence on the training needs for the requisite clinical and non-technical skills of
emergency resuscitation nurses
Methods: A scoping literature review was conducted.
Results: Data extraction was conducted on the final 38 articles (27 peer reviewed
studies and 11 competency and practice standards documents). Specific training
requirements to achieve competence in the requisite clinical and non-technical skills in
resuscitation nursing do not exist. A decline in competency without regular
reinforcement was reported. Multi-modal approaches, incorporating diverse teaching
methods, show potential in enhancing knowledge retention and skill acquisition.
Conclusion: Resuscitation nursing lacks a standardised training approach in Australia,
leading to a gap in ensuring consistent skill acquisition and knowledge among nurses.
Research is required to identify what resuscitation nursing skills and training are
necessary to ensure practice effectively meets the needs of patients.