Continuing Education Certificate in Trauma Skills Among Emergency Nurses: A National Sample Survey Analysis

Journal of Trauma Nursing (12/31/24) Vol. 31, No. 6, P. 290 Castner, Jessica; Zazzera, Erin A.; Burchill, Christian N.

In a recent study, researchers sought to estimate the skill-based certificate status of U.S. nurses who mainly work with emergency or trauma patients and determine the continuing education (CE) learning needs of these nurses. The applied epidemiologic analysis of the 2022 National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses included 239,893 emergency nurses. Of these nurses 57% indicated they had skill-based trauma certificates; there was variation based on rural practice, racial identity, age, and marital status. Nurses with skill-based trauma certificates said the continuing education they needed most involved mental health, quality improvement, and substance use disorders. Based on the findings, the researchers recommend that "population health management interventions are needed to enhance workforce equity and continuing education opportunities for trauma nurses." Additionally, given that nearly 90% of the respondents with skill-based trauma certificates indicated that English was their primary language, the study authors point to the need for efforts "to enhance language accessibility for non-English speaking patients in the trauma care system."

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