Specialty Nursing and Leadership Organizations Commit to Ebola Partnership

The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, the American Organization of Nurse Executives and the Emergency Nurses Association have issued a joint statement about specialty nursing and leadership organization collaboration related to Ebola virus disease, on behalf of their 150,000-plus combined nurse members.

The statement reads as follows: "Recent events leading to the transmission of the Ebola virus from a patient to two critical care nurses punctuate the importance of the vital partnership that must be diligently fostered between our bedside clinicians, nursing leadership and hospital administrators.

"Nurses in our nation’s emergency and critical care settings are the front line professionals who provide and coordinate continual care for the sickest patients in our healthcare system. While the Ebola virus is new to this country, the complications that can be associated with the virus-such as organ failure, shock and sepsis-are frequently managed by our more than 150,000 combined nurse members. This is what our nurses do every day. Their colleagues in nursing administration are stewards entrusted to ensure that hospital resources and systems optimally support the important work of nurses and their multidisciplinary care partners.

"To live our value of true partnership, we have called upon the members of our three organizations:

• to pledge their commitment to collaborate in identifying resource and system gaps that have potential to harm patients or caregivers;
• to work together, with urgency, to put solutions in place that will prevent the spread of this disease; and
• to sustain this collaboration to fulfill our promise to patients and their families that they will receive excellent care."

Source: American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN)