Evidence and practice

Hand injury: investigating the accuracy of referrals to a specialist trauma centre

Ryan Faderani F2, Welsh Centre for Burns and Plastic Surgery, Morriston Hospital, Swansea, Wales

Muholan Kanapathy Academic Clinical Fellow, Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Royal Free Hospital, and Division of Surgery and Interventional Science, University College London, London, England

Afshin Mosahebi Consultant, Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Royal Free Hospital, and Division of Surgery and Interventional Science, University College London, London, England

Why you should read this article:

• To refresh your knowledge of the crucial components of hand injury assessment
• To reflect on the complexity of hand injury assessment and the importance of accurate referrals to tertiary care
• To gain awareness of the hand injury assessment training needs of emergency department clinicians

Hand injury is a common presentation in the emergency department (ED). The accurate assessment of hand injuries is essential to ensure optimal management, which may need to include referral to a tertiary trauma centre. However, hand injury assessment can be challenging, particularly in children. A better understanding of the accuracy of hand injury referrals to tertiary care can help improve clinical practice and clinician training.

This article reports on a service improvement project that aimed to determine the accuracy of hand injury referrals from EDs and general practices to a tertiary trauma centre. The retrospective investigation found the accuracy of referrals to be high, but also identified areas where hand injury assessment required improvement, one of them being the training of clinicians referring complex cases to tertiary care.

Emergency Nurse. doi: 10.7748/en.2021.e2065

Peer review

This article has been subject to external double-blind peer review and checked for plagiarism using automated software

Correspondence

ryan.faderani.13@alumni.ucl.ac.uk

Conflict of interest

None declared

Faderani R, Kanapathy M, Mosahebi A (2021) Hand injury: investigating the accuracy of referrals to a specialist trauma centre. Emergency Nurse. doi: 10.7748/en.2021.e2065

Acknowledgement The authors would like to thank Rhys Whelan for contributing to their investigation by conducting a search of the literature on hand injury referrals from primary care. Evidence search: hand injury referrals from primary care, Rhys Whelan, 16 September 2020, Bwrdd Iechyd Prifysgol Bae Abertawe Library Services, Abertawe/Swansea, Wales

Published online: 26 January 2021

Keywords :

clinical - diagnosis - emergency care - misdiagnosis - nursing care - patient assessment - professional - professional issues - referral - surgical - trauma - wound assessment

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05 November 2024 / Vol 32 issue 6

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DIGITAL EDITION