Patient Satisfaction With a Nurse Practitioner in a University Emergency Service☆,☆☆,★
Section snippets
INTRODUCTION
In the late 1960s, the 1970s, and the early 1980s, the use of nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants in several practice environments demonstrated that they could provide care equal in quality to that provided by physicians.1, 2
Some emergency departments reported that NPs and physician assistants could provide service for patients with nonurgent problems.3, 4Only one report from a US hospital specifically examined patient satisfaction. This report was from an inner-city hospital 10
MATERIALS AND METHODS
We carried out the study at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, a city with a population of approximately 400,000. The ED census is about 22,000 patients a year and represents a socioeconomically diverse group. Patients are usually seen by residents or fourth-year medical students and then examined by the attending staff. Occasionally, patients are seen directly by the attending staff. From the beginning of March through May 1994, a trained and licensed NP worked in the ED and
RESULTS
Thirty patients who were seen by the NP were contacted by telephone and agreed to participate in the study. An equal number of other patients seen during the period was also contacted. The groups were not significantly different in age or sex.
Overall satisfaction was good for both groups of patients: 3.9 (SD, 1.1) for the group who saw the NP and 4.0 (SD, 1.3) for the control group (P=.66 [NS]). Three patients said they would have preferred to have been seen primarily by a physician, 3 patients
DISCUSSION
Our results suggest that ED patients are as satisfied with the care provided by an NP as with that provided by a physician.
It is important to point out the limitations of these data. First, there may have been a socioeconomic bias because this was a telephone survey. Second, only one NP was involved in this trial, and she may not have represented a typical practitioner. Third, most patients were seen by a medical student or resident and then by an attending physician. Patients might feel
CONCLUSION
This study supports data from earlier studies suggesting that patients are satisfied with ambulatory care delivered by NPs.
References (8)
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Nurse practitioner in a university emergency department
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Cited by (55)
Physician Perceptions of Advanced Practice Providers on Hospitalist Teams
2019, Journal for Nurse PractitionersA review of factors affecting patient satisfaction with nurse led triage in emergency departments
2016, International Emergency NursingCitation Excerpt :Reviews suggested that patient satisfaction with the services provided by ED nurses was high (Barr et al., 2000; Bruce et al., 1998; Byrne et al., 2000; Chan and Chau, 2005; Cooper et al., 2002; Davis and Duffy, 1999; Dinh et al., 2012; Elder et al., 2004; Goransson and Rosen, 2010; Mabrook and Dale, 1998; Rhee and Dermyer, 1995; Thrasher and Purc-Stephenson, 2008; Topacoglu et al., 2004; Wilson and Shifaza, 2008). When satisfaction was compared between patients triaged by nurses and those triaged by doctors, the satisfaction rate was similar or higher for nurses (Chang et al., 1999; Cooper et al., 2002; Rhee and Dermyer, 1995). Participants in the included studies felt that the nurses were easier to talk to (Byrne et al., 2000) and that patients felt less worried about their health condition after speaking to a nurse (Byrne et al., 2000; Jennings et al., 2009).
Lack of association between press Ganey emergency department patient satisfaction scores and emergency department administration of analgesic medications
2014, Annals of Emergency MedicineCitation Excerpt :Data from this source were obtained from direct download from the electronic medical record database and hence were not interpreted or abstracted by the research team. We chose to consider these data in our analyses according to existing research and the possibility that these factors could affect patient satisfaction scores.14-79 We classified medications ordered as analgesic medications, opioid analgesics, or other medications (Figure E1, available online at http://www.annemergmed.com).
Patient perceptions of emergency department fast track: A prospective pilot study comparing two models of care
2014, Australasian Emergency Nursing JournalCitation Excerpt :In the UK, both Byrne19 and Cooper20 found that patient satisfaction ratings were higher when seen by a NP compared to a junior doctor in the general ED. In the US, Rhee21 found that patients were equally highly satisfied with both NPs and junior doctors when seen in the general ED. The only Australian study directly comparing NPs to doctors investigated whether NPs could provide an equivalent service in a rural setting.22
Evaluating the quality of care delivered by an emergency department fast track unit with both nurse practitioners and doctors
2012, Australasian Emergency Nursing JournalCitation Excerpt :A large randomised control trial evaluating quality of care in an emergency department minor injuries unit published in Lancet in 1999 found that clinically important errors were made in 9.2% of patients seen by emergency nurse practitioners compared to 10.7% of junior doctors.13 With respect to study group comparisons, our findings are broadly consistent with published trials of nurse practitioner based care evaluating patient satisfaction.14–17 A randomised trial conducted in the UK suggested greater satisfaction in a convenience sample of 199 patients presenting to a minor injuries unit.18
A review of the Transitional Emergency Nurse Practitioner
2011, Australasian Emergency Nursing Journal
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From the Section of Emergency Medicine, Department of Surgery, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska.
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Address for reprints: Erica L Liebelt, MD, Pediatric Emergency Medicine, Room WP 143, YaleNew Haven Hospital, 20 York Street, New Haven, Connecticut 06504, 203-785-7970, Fax 203-785-4809
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Reprint no. 47/1/64583