The Nurse’s View of RRS

Abstract

During the past two decades, healthcare cultures have evolved to recognize the nurse’s critical thinking skills and to promote independent functioning of nurses. Nurses, like all other healthcare professionals, focus on patient safety and deliver the right care at the right time. One example of this new cultural focus of patient safety is introduction of Rapid Response Systems (RRSs) that include Medical Emergency Teams (METs) and Rapid Response Teams (RRTs). Both teams rely on nurse calling for assistance at the first signs of clinical deterioration in hospitalized patients to prevent serious adverse events (such as cardiac arrests) from occurring. Without nurses, METs/RRTs probably would not be successful in achieving this goal.