Implementing Nursing Caring Standards in the Emergency Department

Caring is a core characteristic of the profession of nursing. The author describes the implementation of performance and communication nursing caring standards in an emergency department (ED) to improve patient satisfaction, a significant quality outcome measure for healthcare providers. ED patient satisfaction with the "care and concern by nurses" increased 6.6% after the caring standards were implemented. The development of concrete ED customer service standards appears to be effective in improving caring behaviors by staff and patient satisfaction.