About the MET
The Medical
Emergency Team (MET) is a rapid response team, which has been operating in a 
360
bed Melbourne hospital since 1996. With the implementation of the MET the first
steps have been taken to officially place the emphasis on prompt and proactive
treatment of critically ill patients. The MET has been based on the trauma
response model to prompt early detection and implementation of treatment in an
attempt to reduce the incidence of cardiopulmonary arrest (CPA) and delayed
treatment. This project aims to identify the reasons why the nurses call the MET
and the factors that influence their decisions. It is important to evaluate the
MET process and the nurses’ utilization of this early intervention to help
improve the care of the critical ill patients in general wards.
Nurses are the direct link to the bedside as they are the
primary care givers attending to the
patient 24 hours a day, and it is their
skills that are tested in critical situations. Whether the situation is a
cardiopulmonary arrest (CPA) or a MET call, it is usually the nurse that alerts
the medical profession to the emergency. It is the nurse who needs to rely on
her expertise to be alert to possible critical events and act quickly. The
introduction of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) over 45 years ago began a
medical and nursing intervention that has developed into a highly technological
procedure which requires a great deal of skill, experience and decision-making
expertise.
