Emergency Patient Analysis

I. Introduction

Emergency medicine started in Japan in 1963, and the first, second, and third emergency medical system was developed in 1977 in order to cope with the increase of sudden illness and a shortage of hospitals that admit critically ill patients1). The system of emergency life-saving technicians was established in 1991, finding a new direction of prehospital care that provides initial treatment to emergency patients who are in a state of cardiopulmonary arrest or disturbance of consciousness2). Then, the knowledge and techniques of emergency nursing ranging from emergency skills to the nursing of mental aspects of patients in a crisis situations have developed, and the fostering of emergency nurses started in 1995 in order to put

Yet, they focus only family members, failing to see the problems through the lens of their involvement with patients.

There have been few studies that attempted to clarify family members ' involvement with patients with impaired consciousness by participant-observer study and interviews because it is difficult to focus on them in a tense situation of emergency medicine.

Therefore, in this article I attempted to examine family members ' involvement with patients immediately after they were transferred to a critical care center by putting myself in emergency situations. We need to understand characteristics of family members ' involvement with acutely ill patients with impaired consciousness. I consider that this study would be helpful for understanding how emergency nurses should assist them.

II. The Purpose of

Research Methods

1. Research Design

Family members of patients are shocked to see those who are in serious conditions in a critical care center and often stand motionless. They are in a perplexed state of shock after knowing that the foundation of intimate relationship between them collapsed. It is difficult to understand their feelings only by watching their behaviors from the outside. Therefore, I decided to conduct qualitative and descriptive research for deciphering their subjective experience.

2. Participants in the Research

Participants in this research were acutely ill patients with impaired consciousness and their family members who meet following conditions:

a. a family member who engages with an inpatient who has suffered from disturbed consciousness for more than one day.

b. a family member of a patient who cannot speak and write messages to communicate with others due to loss of consciousness.

c. a family member who visits a patient every day.

d. a family member who understands the purpose of research and agrees to participate in the research.

3. Methods of Data Collection

It took six months to collect necessary data by using following