The pre-Medical Emergency Team response: Nurses' decision-making escalating deterioration to treating teams using urgent review criteria

Aim: To describe nurses' decision-making, experiences and perceptions of escalating deteriorating patients to the treating medical team using urgent clinical review criteria.

Design: A qualitative design comprising individual in-depth interviews with nurses from a major Australian metropolitan tertiary teaching hospital.

Method: A purposive sample of 30 Registered Nurses from nine surgical and medical wards were interviewed in April 2018 using semi-structured interviews. An inductive thematic analysis was conducted.

Results: Identified themes included: detecting the deterioration; countering the problem; getting a response; and challenges faced in the process of escalation. Nurses reported an important awareness, sense of responsibility, and critical thinking to ensure the safe management and escalation of deteriorating patients. However, barriers to escalation necessitated individual workarounds and organizational structures to mitigate patient risk.

Conclusion: This study supports the importance of communication between clinical teams and recognizes that it is crucial to enable a fail-safe experience for patients and families. Recognition of disciplinary contributions to patients' goals of care is required to better understand and address the prevalence of deteriorating patients. Our study is among the first to explore the actual experience of nurses who articulate balancing uncertainty and managing complex team dynamics on wards for patients experiencing deteriorating health status. The information may assist in determining team training strategies and structures to facilitate patient management during deterioration.

Impact: This is among the first study to investigate barriers influencing decision-making of RNs prior to escalation using qualitative methods. This study provides a foundation to inform and develop policies and strategies aimed at ensuring escalation occurs for deteriorating patients.