Extended scope of nursing practice: a multicentre randomised controlled trial of appropriately trained nurses and pre-registration house officers in pre-operative assessment in elective general surgery
Kinley H, Czoski-Murray C, George S, McCabe C, Primrose J, Reilly C, Wood R, Nicolson P, Healy C, Read S, Norman J, Janke E, Alhameed H, Fernandez N, Thomas E
Record ID 32001000934
English
Authors' objectives:
- To determine whether pre-operative assessment carried out by an appropriately trained nurse (ATN) is equivalent in quality to that carried out by a pre-registration house officer (PRHO).
- To assess whether pre-assessments carried out by ATNs and PRHOs are equivalent in terms of cost.
- To determine whether assessments carried out by ATNs are acceptable to patients.
- To investigate the quality of communication between senior medical staff and ATNs.
Authors' results and conclusions:
The pre-operative assessments carried out by the ATNs were essentially equivalent to those performed by the PRHOs in terms of under-assessment that might possibly have affected peri-operative management, although there was variation between the ATNs in terms of the quality of history taking. This may be related to the low number of patients seen at one study site.
PRHOs ordered significantly more unnecessary tests than the ATNs. The substitution of ATNs for PRHOs was calculated to be cost neutral.
The results of the qualitative assessment showed that the use of ATNs for pre-operative assessment was acceptable to patients; however, there was no evidence that communication between senior medical staff and those carrying out pre-operative assessments was improved by their introduction.
Authors' recommendations:
This study demonstrated no reason to inhibit the development of fully nurse-led pre-operative assessment, provided that the nurses are appropriately trained and maintain sufficient workload to retain skills.
ATNs provide an acceptable and efficient alternative to PRHOs for the purposes of routine pre-operative assessment. Consideration will have to be given, however, to the positions of these nurses within the surgical team, and also to their career structure.
Authors' methods:
Randomised controlled trial
Details
Project Status:
Completed
URL for project:
http://www.hta.ac.uk/993
Year Published:
2001
English language abstract:
An English language summary is available
Publication Type:
Not Assigned
Country:
England, United Kingdom
MeSH Terms
- Medical Staff, Hospital
- Nursing Staff
- Nursing Staff, Hospital
- Preoperative Care
Contact
Organisation Name:
NIHR Health Technology Assessment programme
Contact Address:
NIHR Journals Library, National Institute for Health and Care Research, Evaluation, Trials and Studies Coordinating Centre, Alpha House, University of Southampton Science Park, Southampton SO16 7NS, UK
Contact Name:
journals.library@nihr.ac.uk
Contact Email:
journals.library@nihr.ac.uk
Copyright:
2001 Queen's Printer and Controller of HMSO
This is a bibliographic record of a published health technology assessment from a member of INAHTA or other HTA producer. No evaluation of the quality of this assessment has been made for the HTA database.