As we celebrate Nurses Week this year (May 6-12), attention is rightly focused on their sacrifices made during the COVID-19 pandemic over the last more than 14 months. Today, with vaccinations increasing and hospitalizations decreasing, we hopefully are turning the corner on this devastating period. For nurses working in hospitals’ busy emergency departments, however, the respite could very well be short-lived as the deep and lingering impacts of COVID-19 on behavioral health become more evident.
More people are experiencing symptoms of anxiety and depression than pre-pandemic; opioid overdoses have increased; and COVID-19 itself has been identified as risk factor for developing a neurological or psychological condition. The resulting increased need for behavioral health care puts more burden on an already-strained behavioral health care system and on hospital emergency departments, which, too often, are the providers of last resort for those in crisis.
When patients in crisis have to wait for appropriate care in hospital emergency departments for hours…and in some cases, days… first and foremost patient care suffers, but there are serious impacts on nurses as well. ED boarding for behavioral health patients leads to worsening of symptoms and increased risk of requiring involuntary medication and restraints, likelihood of patient elopement, risk of self harm, and risk of violence towards staff. Nurses also must spend an increasing amount of time on repetitive administrative tasks, such as phone calls one-by-one to facilities to try to identify available care resources, all while managing their patient care obligations. The exhaustion and burnout that follow are significant, and they affect care for all of us.
XFERALL supports nurses in several ways:
1. XFERALL supports better patient care by reducing the amount of time patients wait in hospital emergency departments and getting them to an appropriate care setting more quickly.
2. XFERALL reduces administrative burdens and operational inefficiencies, as well as burnout, and allows nurses to spend more of their time caring for patients.
XFERALL was developed by behavioral health clinicians who worked in some of the nation’s busiest hospital emergency departments. It was developed by clinicians to support clinicians in the shared goal of providing the best patient care possible.
Nurses Week is an opportunity to celebrate and honor our nurses. It’s also an opportunity to make sure they are supported in their work, not just for a week, but every day.