Background: Emergency Clinical Nurse Specialists (CNS) are expert practitioners in their specialty area. They treat patients of all ages, presenting with minor injuries to severe illness in the variable and often inundated Emergency Department (ED). This complex role has an increasing scope of practice. The Emergency CNS role is unique, yet it has been neglected in published Australian literature.
Objective: The research aimed to describe the demographic profile of current emergency CNSs, examine how they perceive their practice, outline their responsibilities, review their level of satisfaction, and investigate their intent to continue working in the ED.
Methods: An online questionnaire was developed and validated by the research team, based on the CENA Practice Standards for the Specialist Emergency Nurse. The cross-sectional survey was completed by current CNSs practicing in Victorian and New South Wales EDs in January 2024.
Results: The final analysis comprised of 59 responses. While participants reported using all the Practice Standards with a comparable frequency, the Lawful Practice domain achieved highest rating in ‘current frequency’ of use. Lawful Practice, Professional Ethics and Teamwork achieved equal importance scores. With a median of 3 years (IQR 1-5) employed as a CNS, a greater part of respondents (79%) intended to continue employment in emergency nursing, and all respondents expressed intention to remain in the healthcare industry. A majority of CNSs (77%) reported current satisfaction in their role.
Conclusion: Emergency CNSs are largely satisfied with their role. Strategies to enhance the role in the future would allow a framework to allocate time to the many role elements.