Brian Dolan

#EndPJparalysis is about trusting nurses and valuing patients’ time

A global movement to get patients up, dressed and moving started with a conversation in a hospital in the Australian outback.

Why are we waiting?

Accident and emergency units are one of the key interfaces between patients and the health service. In addition, A&E units have to accommodate a diverse range of activity and face a considerable amount of uncertainty as to the demands that will be put upon them at any one time. They are therefore a logical place to begin to explore the perceptions of increased pressures on the whole of the NHS.

Towards a faculty of Emergency Nursing

Since its inception in 1972, the RCN A&E Nursing Association has been committed to developing the science and art of A&E nursing and has sought to represent the voice of A&E nurses.

Emergency nurses and their perceptions of caring

The winter 1998/9 bed crisis once again highlighted the A&E department as being one of the main pressure points in the NHS, resulting in a great deal of stress being placed upon A&E staff. The link between stress and burnout has been well established and research by Walsh et al (1998) has shown worryingly high levels of burnout among A&E nursing staff, particularly in terms of deperson-alisation of patients. A key question, therefore, is whether A&E nurses view patient care differently from their colleagues in other areas of nursing. This research addresses that question together with the issue of how A&E nurses view stress.

Nurse practitioners: the role in A&E and primary care

This article describes a recent evaluation of the work of nurse practitioners across a range of A&E departments and minor treatment centres in west London. Questionnaires, face-to-face interviews and focus groups were used to collect the data. The authors found that across the sites in the study, the provision of nurse practitioner services varied in scope but were well received by staff and patients. Issues surrounding training remained unresolved, but the role appeared to be developing in response to the reduction in junior doctors’ hours and improved and extended opportunities in pre- and post-registration nurse education. The authors recommend that the cost effectiveness of nurse practitioners should be evaluated. The accompanying commentary suggests the nurse practitioner role should be explicitly defined.