How emergency department staff perceive acute nurse practitioners
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How emergency department staff perceive acute nurse practitioners

Clare Bryson Staff nurse, NHS Tayside Emergency Department, Ninewells Hospital, Dundee

Clare Bryson presents a survey of clinicians’ opinions about a newly established extended role for staff in an urgent care setting

Over the past few years, emergency nursing has introduced new roles to allow nurses to practise at advanced levels. The well established emergency nurse practitioner role, which focuses on patients with minor illnesses and injuries, is being expanded and remodelled, partly to fill the gap created by the decline in the number of emergency medicine doctors. One emergency department in Scotland has introduced an extended nursing role called the acute nurse practitioner, which enables nurses to work at an extended level in the majors area of the department. This article discusses findings from a study that examined a range of healthcare clinicians’ perceptions of this newly established service. Findings suggest that the service is received positively by colleagues and patients, but also highlight a number of issues that need to be addressed to enhance the service and support implementation in other emergency departments.

Emergency Nurse. 23, 10, 26-31. doi: 10.7748/en.23.10.26.s23

Correspondence

clare.bryson@nhs.net

Peer review

This article has been subject to double-blind review and has been checked using antiplagiarism software

Conflict of interest

None declared

Received: 26 December 2015

Accepted: 16 February 2016

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