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Table 1 Community & Emergency Department Context of Three Sites of Media Analysis

From: Media framing of emergency departments: a call to action for nurses and other health care providers

Study Site

Community & Hospital Context

ED-Specific Context

“Urban ED”

St. Paul’s Hospital (SPH)

Vancouver Coastal Health Authority

▪ Located in the west end of a large metropolis in Western Canada on unceded traditional lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.

▪ Primary hospital for an urban area and adjacent neighbourhoods, including the inner-city community commonly referred to as the Downtown Eastsidea.

▪ Extensive expertise providing care to patients who experience challenges related to substance use, often related to the opioid epidemicb.

▪ The SPH ED serves over 80,000 patients annually and up to 300 patients per day [18].

▪ The SPH ED plays a critical role in responding to the opioid crisis, in terms of treating people who have overdosed, and also houses an overdose prevention site [19].

“Suburban ED”

Surrey Memorial Hospital (SMH)

Fraser Health Authority

▪ Located on the lands of the Semiahmoo, Katzie, Kwantlen, Tsawwassen, QayQayt and Kwikwetlem First Nations in a suburban setting in the city of Surrey, the fastest growing city in BC.

▪ About one in four Surrey residents live in poverty.

▪ SMH serves a relatively high proportion of new immigrants and refugees.

▪ The largest ED in Western Canada.

▪ Over 165,000 people visited the SMH ED in 2018, making it the busiest ED in the province of British Columbia [20].

“Northern Regional ED”

University Hospital of Northern British Columbia (UHNBC)

Northern Health Authority

▪ A central-interior regional hub located on the traditional territory of the Lheidli T’enneh First Nation.

▪ Level III trauma centre and the largest hospital in the region, providing services to people dispersed over an area of approximatively 600,000 km2.

▪ UHNBC serves a relatively high proportion of Indigenousc peoples.

▪ There are 54 First Nations communities within Northern Health [21].

▪ Advanced referral ED for over 300,000 regional residents [22].

  1. aThe Downtown Eastside (DTES) is a community built upon tremendous support and co-existence amongst people who include, for example, people who live in extreme poverty, people who lack access to safe and affordable housing, and women who are disproportionately affected by intimate partner violence
  2. bThe opioid epidemic is a major public health crisis in British Columbia due to unintentional drug overdoses. Opioid-related overdoses and deaths have increased since 2011, rose dramatically in 2015, and a public health emergency was declared in 2016; this public health emergency remains in place [23]
  3. cConsistent with accepted terminology used in landmark international reports, the term ‘Indigenous peoples’ is used to refer to the diversity of populations throughout the world. In Canada, over 1.7 million people of the total population of ~34.5 million (4.9%) identify as Indigenous [7], including First Nations, Métis, and Inuit people. In British Columbia, the Northern Health Authority (where the "Northern Regional ED" is situated), has the highest proportion of Indigenous peoples amongst all health authorities in British Columbia. Approximately 20.1% of the population served by the Northern Health Authority self-identify as Indigenous [24]
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BMC Nursing

ISSN: 1472-6955

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