Raising Awareness for Sepsis, Sepsis Screening, Early Recognition, and Treatment in the Emergency Department

Abstract

Contribution to Emergency Nursing Practice •Early recognition and initiation of treatment is vital to patient outcomes and survival from sepsis. •Sepsis screening in triage to be completed by nurses on all patients with suspected infection. •Initiation of sepsis protocol and/or standing orders for positive sepsis screens should be implemented. •Educate staff, patients, and families regarding signs and symptoms of sepsis, severe sepsis, and severe sepsis with shock; raise awareness. Contribution to Emergency Nursing Practice •Early recognition and initiation of treatment is vital to patient outcomes and survival from sepsis. •Sepsis screening in triage to be completed by nurses on all patients with suspected infection. •Initiation of sepsis protocol and/or standing orders for positive sepsis screens should be implemented. •Educate staff, patients, and families regarding signs and symptoms of sepsis, severe sepsis, and severe sepsis with shock; raise awareness. Contribution to Emergency Nursing Practice •Early recognition and initiation of treatment is vital to patient outcomes and survival from sepsis. •Sepsis screening in triage to be completed by nurses on all patients with suspected infection. •Initiation of sepsis protocol and/or standing orders for positive sepsis screens should be implemented. •Educate staff, patients, and families regarding signs and symptoms of sepsis, severe sepsis, and severe sepsis with shock; raise awareness. Elizabeth Walters is DNP Student at Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC. Updated Knowledge About the Diagnosis and Treatment of Sepsis and Septic ShockJournal of Emergency NursingVol. 44Issue 5PreviewWe read the insightful article by Walters.1 However, some viewpoints of the paper are outdated; therefore, we present relevant updated concepts of sepsis and septic shock here. Full-Text PDF Response to Walters' Article Regarding Raising Awareness for SepsisJournal of Emergency NursingVol. 44Issue 6PreviewThe May 2018 issue of JEN included an article on sepsis by E. Walters.1 I’d like to thank her for raising awareness of sepsis, but given the rapidly changing nature of medicine, much of the information in her article is outdated. The information in Walters’ article was not reflective of the most recent 2016 Surviving Sepsis Campaign (SSC) guidelines, nor of the 2018 Sepsis Bundle update (which, to be fair, was published after Walters’ article).2,3 I’d like to briefly clarify some of the central aspects of sepsis care as it currently stands in the literature and, by extension, in practice. Full-Text PDF