ED-HOME: Improving educator confidence and patient education in the Emergency Department

Barriers to effective patient communication in the emergency department (ED) are well recognised; time, resources and staff and consumer expectations. This project aimed to improve the quality of health education provided in the ED by increasing nurses' confidence as educators.

By providing a staff information package including the introduction of a new structured education tool; ED-HOME, and by assessing the confidence and self-efficacy of the nurses in the process, we hoped to determine if an improvement in practice and confidence was achieved. A quantitative, pre and post-test questionnaire comparison study was undertaken before and after a four week implementation period. The project examined the attitudes and practices of registered emergency nurses and was conducted in one metropolitan emergency department.

Results indicated that nurse confidence and self-efficacy improved by using the new structured ED-HOME format and both staff satisfaction and education competence increased. Participants positively responded to the new tool and recommended future use in the ED.

This project demonstrates that if emergency nurses feel more confident with their educating practices and by using a structured format, patients will benefit from better quality patient education provided in the ED.