Emergency nurses, perception of the need to receive feedback on completed interventions

Background: The local emergency care team takes charge of the patient in the area and completes its intervention on arrival at the emergency department, where a new team takes charge of the case. The handover is currently not standardised and there is a lack of scientific evidence and tools in the literature. In addition, the local nurse does not receive feedback on the completed operation. Aim: The aim of this study was to explore the experiences and perceptions of emergency nurses regarding the need for feedback on the intervention completed by the emergency department. It also aimed to identify and understand, from a nursing point of view, the critical points in territorial emergency procedures and hospital emergencies. Methodology: Qualitative phenomenological analysis using a semi-structured interview tool. The sample consisted of thirty nurses from three different hospitals in central and northern Italy who had been working in the emergency service for at least two years and the study was approved by the AVEN ethical committee. Results: The data analysed revealed the need for local nurses to receive feedback from the emergency department, highlighting the issue of privacy, the sense of abandonment experienced by the professional and the need for clinical debriefing. The lack of a standardised method of handover also emerged and is consistent with the literature. Discussion: The literature shows how clinical debriefing benefits reflective practice between nurses and healthcare teams and contributes to nursing science by providing a platform for the development of standards of practice, research and theoretical development. In debriefing, as in handover, the lack of standardised tools and methods was identified, leading to reflection and the formulation of future research questions.