As we continue our celebration of Emergency Nurses Week, today we hear from Emma Warburton, currently acting in a Clinical Nurse Consultant role at the Cairns Hospital Emergency Department.
Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service has a large catchment – from as far north as Torres Strait Islands and Papua New Guinea, south to Tully and west to Croydon, the ED is kept busy with some 7,200 presentations a month on average. Despite the pressures of being the only major hospital in the catchment, Emma says there’s something special about Cairns.
“That’s what people say – there’s just something about Cairns. It has character. People come here, they have a taste and then want to come back,” she said. Plus, the location of the hospital is a bonus, positioned right on the esplanade overlooking the Coral Sea. “The sunrise over the water makes night shift worth it!”
Emma has worked in emergency nursing for 12 years following three years in paediatric nursing. She has seen the Cairns ED go through one major redevelopment, with another one currently underway. Due to its unique location, the team sees a variety of cases. “We see quite a spread of conditions presenting including trauma and workplace injuries, toxicology, medical and surgical emergencies and paediatric patients. During wet season we see presentations like melioidosis and because of our location we see tropical diseases like leptospirosis and the odd marine sting and snake bite,” Emma said.
The variety in emergency nursing wasn’t the only thing that appealed to Emma, who recalls the sense of admiration she felt for ED nurses when she first stepped foot into the department. “I admired all the nurses who were in the thick of it. I aspired to work to the top. And I really wanted to work somewhere that was fast paced with high energy so I could be continually challenged.”
“It is a hard job, but I enjoy going to work. No day is the same and no patient is the same. Every day is a completely new day. Having a great team (nursing, medical, allied health, admin, security and support services) to work among helps.”
Emma also said Cairns was extremely well prepared for the COVID-19 pandemic. “We had a very good approach to pre-planning. Our seniors really anticipated well in terms of stock and PPE, and we were quite well set up so that we could enclose a whole area to be an ED COVID space with good patient flow models of care,” Emma said. Despite the good planning, Emma thinks the pandemic has taken a toll on emergency nurses. “It has caused significant burnout. Something we really need to focus on – staff retention and avoiding burnout. Burnout is a huge risk, working in a time pressured environment with increasing numbers of presentations and increasing numbers of acutely unwell patients. That’s where the burnout can set in – as we work our hardest to help so many and forget about ourselves.”
Emma says clinical supervision is so important and praised the model in place for mental health staff. Hospital staff also have access to an Employee Assistance Program for further support.
“We need to ensure staff are cared for emotionally and physically. Clinical supervision affords the ability to de-brief with someone on a professional level, so we don’t bottle-up workplace stress.”
Emma also says good work life balance is important. “You want to be elbow deep in it all, but when you’re constantly faced with very unwell patients or always putting your hand up to work extra, at the time it may seem good, but it does impact on you. You need to know when to draw the line.”
With a worldwide shortage of nurses, staff recruitment and retention are a major priority for the health system, which starts with supporting the staff we already have. “We have a very supportive NUM and senior nursing team. They try to ensure we have the right skill mix every day and every shift. We have an amazing group of educators and clinical facilitators – they are the backbone of our team, supporting and educating our staff, and improving our professional development to propel us to where we want to be,” Emma said.
“The future is in our nurses. Let’s support them to grow.”
For support with mental health and wellbeing, we recommend the following websites:
