Interactive Edutainment Session Explores ED Decision-Making Process

Triage and Tequila Take 2 is a session that accentuates the mixture of entertainment and education at Emergency Nursing 2023.

This interactive edutainment session will follow a patient labeled as a “super-utilizer” through their journey in a busy emergency department and explore the ED decision-making process in caring for them. Audience members should come prepared to learn from common misconceptions in a “quirky” dinner theater format. Tequila and dinner are not included, but there will be a bar.

This year’s event will be hosted from 6:15-7 p.m. Pacific time on Sept. 22 in room ABCF inside the San Diego Convention Center.

The scenario will illustrate a characteristically chaotic night in the ED by introducing a character and watching their visit unfold. Throughout the session, the on-stage action will pause for audience members to consider what they would do in the scenario and provide solutions.

“We want to open up a discussion about the subtle differences in how we handle situations from hospital to hospital or region to region,” explained ENA Conference Education Planning Committee Co-chair Katherine Hammond, DNP, FNP-C, APRN, CEN. “It’s also going to be very funny, thought provoking and engaging.”

The case studies at Triage and Tequila highlight the importance of reviewing a patient’s comprehensive medical history as well as the necessity of checking potential biases while diagnosing a patient’s condition, especially with those who have a familiar relationship with a given ED.

“These are medical emergencies we see every day, and sometimes they can be difficult to triage, work up and diagnose, which makes them great topics for edutainment,” Hammond said.

The inaugural Triage and Tequila session was held at Emergency Nursing 2022 and met with a resoundingly positive response from attendees.

“We had an incredible turnout last year that we were not expecting at all,” Hammond said. “It was a packed room, and I felt like everybody left feeling like we had a great discussion about a topic that can be challenging for emergency nurses. We also had a great time doing it.”

This year’s session will be held immediately before the Foundation Party with a Purpose, which is an add-on upgrade to the ENA After Dark and Welcome Party events. The theme of the Welcome Party is “Emergency Nurses Assemble,” a nod to San Diego’s annual Comic-Con hosted in the San Diego Convention Center. Due to the timing of these two events, Triage and Tequila participants are encouraged to arrive in their superhero costumes (no professional alter ego disguises necessary) so they can join the opening party once the session ends.