Description
Lead and advance emergency nursing practice by directing ED nursing staff in rapid assessment, resuscitation, and patient flow across triage, trauma, and critical care areas. Ensure adherence to emergency care policies, protocols, regulations, and standards while providing specialized consultation and advanced clinical care in the ED.
- • Coordinate or conduct ED-focused education and in-service training on triage, trauma, sepsis, stroke, STEMI, and ACLS/PALS.
- • Rapidly assess, interview, and monitor patients to identify emergent care needs and acuity.
- • Evaluate the quality and effectiveness of emergency nursing practice and ED operational systems.
- • Provide advanced direct care in resuscitation areas, including comprehensive assessments, differential diagnoses, and ordering tests or treatments per scope.
- • Deliver specialized direct and indirect care for emergency and trauma patients across the lifespan.
- • Maintain ED policies, procedures, objectives, and infection prevention, including isolation, decontamination, and equipment readiness protocols.
- • Collaborate with physicians, EMS, trauma teams, and ancillary services to optimize ED care.
- • Develop ED nursing philosophies, goals, policies, priorities, and clinical pathways.
- • Develop, implement, and evaluate emergency nursing standards and evidence-based bundles, including analgesia and sedation protocols.
- • Develop or assist in individualized emergency care and disposition plans.
- • Make clinical recommendations on triage level, diagnostics, treatment, transfer, or admission.
- • Plan, evaluate, or modify treatment using real-time data, bedside observation, and record review.
- • Provide patients and families with information to support informed decisions during urgent care episodes.
- • Instruct staff on disaster preparedness, mass-casualty response, hazmat decontamination, and debriefing.
- • Direct or supervise nursing care during codes, rapid responses, and trauma activations.
- • Identify training needs and competency gaps for ED nurses and providers.
- • Stay current on emergency care literature and participate in professional organizations and conferences.
- • Monitor or co-manage patient conditions in collaboration with the interprofessional ED team.
- • Participate in ED research, quality registries, protocol reviews, and regulatory meetings.
- • Coordinate safe discharge planning, follow-up, and patient education for ED discharges.
- • Prepare reports and dashboards documenting ED quality metrics and patient care activities.
- • Write nursing orders, standing orders, and protocol-driven pathways within scope and policy.
- • Provide consultation on ED operations, patient flow, clinical procedures, and complex cases.
- • Develop and maintain ED patient care standards and guidelines based on evidence and expert consensus.
- • Design and lead QI initiatives evaluating throughput, door-to-needle times, and resuscitation outcomes.
- • Design targeted patient education tools for emergency aftercare, safety, and return precautions.
- • Lead ED compliance with EMTALA, Joint Commission, trauma center, and stroke/STEMI accreditation requirements.
- • Chair or participate in ED committees such as resuscitation, sepsis, or falls prevention.
- • Teach patient education sessions on symptom recognition, medication safety, and community resources.
- • Coach and mentor ED nurses and caregivers to support professional growth and specialty certification.
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Tasks & skills:
O*NET occupational data (work activities, skills, knowledge).
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This site includes information from O*NET by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. Career Clutch has modified some of this information for student readability. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.
Last reviewed: Jan 2026
