Emergency nurse practitioners should manage major cases
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Emergency nurse practitioners should manage major cases

Sapal Tachakra Clinical Director of A&E Services, Central Middlesex Hospital, London
Alistair Stinson Deputy Director of Nursing, Northwick Park Hospital NHS Trust

Sapal Tachakra and Alistair Stinson propose a radical solution to emergency care pressures

Over a period of years, A&E departments have become busier and, paradoxically, the increased workload has been felt most in well-run departments. The increase has been due to:

• A true rise in the number of cases being seen

• A greater filtering function performed by the department. The filtering function is time-consuming because it requires doctors requesting X-rays and pathology tests that would have been requested by inpatient staff a decade ago when there were more beds available

• The greater need to discharge patients back into the community to save on hospital admissions

• The process required in making a wise and safe decision by A&E and inpatient staff means that the time spent in A&E can be increased.

Emergency Nurse. 8, 5, 12-15. doi: 10.7748/en2000.09.8.5.12.c1329

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