Nurse-led competency model for ED physicians -

Abstract

Traditional models of doctor-nurse relations emphasized professional dominance and subordination. However, the healthcare system is evolving rapidly witnessing a major shift in the traditional view of nurse-physician relations. Such changes in the healthcare system are pressuring healthcare institutions to provide more efficient, safe, fast-paced, and accessible patient-centered care, calling therefore for teamwork and inter-professional collaboration. The emergency medicine (EM) field in specific has been at the center of many studies on inter-professional interactions considering its complex and challenging environment, which is characterized by high workload, time-pressured type of care, and the need for collaboration between multiple care providers. Knowing that nurses work closely with EM physicians and that the provision of high quality care has always been a shared goal for them, their feedback on physician competencies in patient-centered and systems-based care are of great value. In this paper, we aim to contribute to better integration between physicians and nurses by breaking the norms of subordination and attempting to develop a competency model for emergency medicine physicians from the perspective of their strategic partner, emergency medicine nurses. The study is conducted at the Emergency Department at the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC), analyzing qualitative data about nurses’ assessment of EM physicians. Based on their perspective, we intend to develop a competency model that would help us in the first place to identify the key competencies of EM physicians from the nurses’ perspective. It also helps us define measurable behavioral indicators in order to assess these competencies and better select, develop, and evaluate EM physicians’ performance. We will then juxtapose the resulting competencies against those identified by the Accrediting Council of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). By taking the nurses’ perspective, we aim to identify competenci