GPs’ opinions of discharge summaries generated by advanced nurse practitioners in emergency care settings
Martin Duignan Advanced nurse practitioner, Emergency department, Our Lady’s Hospital, Navan, Republic of Ireland
Lynda Gibbons Registered advanced nurse practitioner, Our Lady’s Hospital, Navan, Republic of Ireland
Laserina O’Connor Joint clinical chair, Director of graduate clinical studies, University College Dublin School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Systems, Dublin, Republic of Ireland
Ray Denning Registered advanced nurse practitioner, Our Lady’s Hospital, Navan, Republic of Ireland
Bahman Honari Lead statistician, Arman Consultancy and Training Centre for Statistics and Mathematics, Dublin, Republic of Ireland
Kevin McKenna Lecturer, Dundalk Institute of Technology, Republic of Ireland
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Aim Clinical handover at the point of discharge is critically important. It generally occurs through a written document, usually in the form of a discharge summary. Hospital discharge summaries contribute to continuity of care for patients who leave hospital and who may require care in the community provided by their GP. They must be accurate, valid, reliable, timely, legible and complete. The aim of this study was to investigate GPs’ perceptions of the content of discharge summaries generated by emergency advanced nurse practitioners (EANPs).
Method A cross-sectional descriptive survey design was used and a questionnaire was distributed to 120 GPs. Raw statistical data were analysed using SPSS v22 while the qualitative data from the open-ended questions were manually analysed.
Findings Most GPs were satisfied with the EANPs’ discharge summary letters. However, this study supports previous papers that identified deficits in communication between secondary care and GPs.
Conclusion There is a need to refine discharge summaries to create an enhanced structured discharge summary template that can be used by all disciplines.
Emergency Nurse.
doi: 10.7748/en.2018.e1818
Citation
Duignan M, Gibbons L, O’Connor L et al (2018) GPs’ opinions of discharge summaries generated by advanced nurse practitioners in emergency care settings. Emergency Nurse. doi: 10.7748/en.2018.e1818
Peer review
This article has been subject to external double-blind peer review and has been checked for plagiarism using automated software
Correspondence
martin.duignan@hse.ie
Conflict of interest
None declared
Published online: 16 October 2018
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