Children's clinical nurse co-ordinator reduces need for junior doctors

The introduction of a clinical nurse co-ordinator at one children’s hospital reduced bleeps to junior doctors for assistance by 55% during a six-month period.

The pilot out-of-hours initiative, designed to reduce workloads and improve patient care during the peak winter months, proved so successful it has become permanent.

A service evaluation found 55% of the 3,209 bleeps normally sent to senior house officers between 6pm and 2am from November 2013 to April 2014 were actually dealt with by nurses, which freed up the doctors’ time and gave nurses more opportunities to use their skills.

Speaking at the RCN and Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health conference in Birmingham this week, Sheffield Children's Hospital NHS Foundation Trust nurse Amy Hensman said: ‘The medical team were swamped during the winter period and wanted to improve patient care.’

Eight mainly band six nurses dealt with the problems and only referred patients when it was outside their competence.

The NHS trust has since agreed to fund a post full time, working 8pm to 8am. It was also recommended that phlebotomy services worked until midnight. Blood and cannulation issues, in particular, only had to be escalated to doctors 23% of the time.