Nicola Melton
Name: Nicola Melton
Research Group/Institute: Princess Alexandra Hospital/ Griffith University
Research Interest/Field: Emergency Care
What made you decide to work in this field? Strong clinical background in emergency with the majority of my clinical time practiced in this field. Desire to enhance quality of care for ED patients. Opportunities and satisfaction in improving patient outcomes, clinical and work practices through research. What is the goal and significance of your research that you would like people to know? Generically my goals include:
- To contribute to the body of knowledge and expand high quality nursing research in the field of emergency
- To improve the quality of patient care within the emergency department
- To inspire emergency nurses to think beyond the bedside and strive to improve emergency nursing through questioning and looking for better ways to practice
Specifically, relating to my masters project for which I have received PA Research Support Postgraduate Scholarship:
- Identify the prevalence of 'did not wait' patients at Princess Alexandra Hospital 6 months prior to the ED redevelopment and 6 months after.
- Identify and describe the characteristics of 'did not wait' patients at PAH ED (including patient demographics, triage acuity, presenting compliant, time, day and month or presentation, services utilised by DNW patients and associated costs)
- Indentify the describe the institutional characteristics of PAH ED (including ED wait time - time of arrival to time of discharge, ED access block, annual ED census, ED level of service classification, percentage of impatient admissions from ED, ED length of stay, overall number of medical and nursing staff per shift)
If you were at a dinner party and someone asked you what you are researching, what would you say? I am currently involved in a number of projects on a ranage or topics within the field of Emergency including paracetamol overdose, triage validation, a multicentre study on Ambulance ramping patient outcomes and my masters project - patients who leave without being seen (did not waits). How does or how has or how will funding from a Foundation help your research project? I am very grateful to receive funding from the foundation as it will enable me to dedicate my time to focus on my research and complete my Masters dissertation with the intent to continue to progress to a PhD. What is on your research wish list? Streamlined research approval processes. Generous amounts of easily accessible funding to undertake research. Enthusiasm and support for research in the clinical setting. What do you like to do when you're not at work? Spend time with my husband and friends. Maintain an active and healthy lifestyle through going to the gym, yoga, personal training. What would you be doing if you weren't a researcher? Working in my clinical field of expertise, Emergency Nursing. What are you most proud of? Being awarded PA Research Support Postgraduate scholarship.
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