The following is a statement by Gail Lenehan, EdD, MSN, RN FAEN, FAAN, President of the Emergency Nurses Association, on the National Institutes of Health's New Office of Emergency Care Research:
"As the national organization representing more than 40,000 emergency nurses, the Emergency Nurses Association (ENA) applauds the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for establishing the new Office of Emergency Care Research (OECR).
"This investment in emergency care research underscores NIH's commitment to this important field and is an historic step toward strengthening and expanding the field of emergency care research. We are extremely excited about the opportunities that lie ahead for all health care researchers in emergency care to further their research goals and improve the quality of their work, and, in turn, the quality of care we are all able to provide to our patients."
"In addition to providing support for innovation and improvement in emergency care, and training future researchers, OECR will give us an opportunity to work collaboratively with our colleagues at the American College of Emergency Physicians and the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine on interprofessional research initiatives that address the needs of patients and the clinicians who work as a team in the emergency care setting.
"Emergency nurses believe strongly in the importance of evidence-based practice. ENA's Institute for Emergency Nursing Research has conducted crucial studies that have provided evidence supporting a variety of practices and policies that have improved emergency nursing practice and the care of our patients.
"As emergency departments across the country deliver care to exponentially increasing numbers of patients with unprecedented challenges in terms of the complexity and acuity of their problems, this is welcomed news indeed!"
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