© 2001 the Emergency Medicine Journal
Original article
Establishing an emergency nurse practitioner service
Leighton Hospital, Crewe, Cheshire CW1 4QJ, UK
Correspondence to:
Correspondence to: Mr Bache (john_bache@hotmail.com)
Accepted June 19, 2000
Introduction
The role of the nurse in the emergency department has evolved over recent years.1 Emergency nurse practitioners (ENPs) were introduced into the accident and emergency (A&E) department at Leighton Hospital in July 1992, when designated nurse practitioner schemes were rare.2 They have been of enormous benefit to the patients and staff since then. This paper describes some of the potential advantages and disadvantages of an ENP service, and provides some practical advice on establishing such a service.Emerg Med J 2001;18:186–189
Potential advantages of an ENP service
Virtually all A&E departments in the United Kingdom perceive themselves to be understaffed, particularly as far as medical staffing is concerned. An intrinsic difficulty in establishing adequate staffing levels is the variable and largely unpredictable nature of the workload. There are more A&E nurses than doctors, so that sharing some of the workload between the two professions will result in greater flexibility. A&E is an intensely practical specialty and it
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