Overcrowding in Accident and Emergency Departments (A&E) in Ireland has reached crisis
proportions since the dawning of the new millennium. Although this phenomenon is not
unique to Ireland and many authors have suggested causes and management strategies to
deal with these crises, little appears to have been written regarding the experiences of
patients or their families waiting in the A&E. The aim of this qualitative descriptive study was
to describe the experiences of patients and/or their relatives/significant others who had …