Development of a framework for emergency nursing in Africa: Scoping infrastructure requirements

Dr Tricia Scott, Senior Lecturer and Emergency Care Research Lead, Centre for Research in Primary and Community Care, has been awarded the Burdett International Travel Award of £12570 to collaborate with emergency nursing academics at Universities of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban and, Pretoria. Standards of emergency nursing require Pan-Africa harmonisation, of benefit to emergency patient populations. This project is responsive to the increasing trauma burden, and other disease burdens addressed in the World Health Organisation Millennium Development Goals. The emergency nursing standardisation framework was created at the International Emergency Medicine Conference, Cape Town (November 2013). This grant will launch the White Paper ‘State of Emergency Nursing in Africa’ at the 1st Global Conference on Emergency Nursing and Trauma Care, Dublin (2014) and enable collaboration with stakeholders at the International Council of Nurses Conference, Seoul (2015). Dr Scott will provide Consultant advice to write regionally sensitive emergency nursing theoretical and clinical competences and, strengthen education resource and accreditation processes. Collaborators to the project include: Professor Petra Brysiewicz, School of Nursing and Public Health, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa (Past President, Emergency Nursing Society of South Africa (ENSSA) and Dr Tanya Heyns, Senior Lecturer in Emergency Nursing, University of Pretoria, South Africa (President ENSSA).