Exploring and interpreting how nurses experience and attribute meaning during pediatric emergencies

Introduction Appropriate and adequate use of clinical tools is important for achieving positive outcomes in patients during emergencies. This can be achieved when tools are understood based on their mode of Being and spatial value to Dasein rather being understood by the characteristics and properties they possess. However, there is little empirical research on how nurses deal with and encounter these tools, their lived experience of these tools, and their meaning-making of these tools in pediatric emergency care. Purpose This study aimed to explore and interpret how nurses experience and make meaning of the “mode-of-Being” and use of clinical tools in emergency pediatric care within the context of their everyday clinical practice. Methods A phenomenological design was adopted to explore tool use among pediatric emergency nurses in a hospital emergency ward. Qualitative data were collected through interviews and analyzed using Diekelman–Allan–Tanner's method. Findings Team application of the A, B, C, D, E (airway, breathing, circulation, dehydration, and exposure to trauma) protocol optimizes pediatric emergency care; work fashion as an ecosystem; human, institutional, and financial constraints; and three team-pillar approaches to professional development. Practical implications This study will benefit children undergoing emergency treatment and enhance both experiential and theoretical knowledge of tools by nurses, thereby resulting in effective and efficient use of tools and higher-quality care outcomes.