Women’s Experiences of Miscarriage in the Emergency Department

The objective of this study was to identify characteristics of care management that may have contributed to the difficulties experienced by women presenting with miscarriage in the emergency department.MethodsForty-eight women treated at 4 emergency departments in different regions of Quebec, Canada, were interviewed for 60 to 90 minutes. A thematic qualitative analysis of these interviews was performed.ResultsAnalyses revealed that participants’ experiences were characterized particularly by a lack of information at 3 critical junctures of the miscarriage experience: the announcement of the miscarriage, the course of the miscarriage, and the ED discharge. The topics on which the women lacked information were categorized into 7 subthemes within these junctures.DiscussionLack of information throughout the care management of miscarriage exacerbated the already-difficult nature of this event for the participants. Training emergency nurses to give adequate and complete information enables the delivery of compassionate care, potentially making a difficult situation less traumatic.
Source: Journal of Emergency Nursing - Category: Nursing Source Type: research