We have prospectively studied the influence of a nurse practitioner service on out of hours work intensity of surgical house officers. Data collection was achieved by prospective audit. The study was set in the surgical wards in a large teaching hospital. The main outcome measures were; 1) the nature and frequency of overnight calls to the nurse practitioner, and 2) the outcome of these calls (doctor not bleeped, telephone advice given by doctor or doctor attended ward). A total of 645 calls were made over the 75 night study period (8.6 calls/night). Two hundred and ninety-six calls were managed by the nurse practitioner alone. This represents a 46% reduction in work intensity for the surgical house officer. This study illustrates the benefits of a nurse practitioner service and also identifies important areas for undergraduate education in preparing medical students for the common problems encountered during the surgical on-call period.
In January 2001 the Chief Medical Officer announced the Public Inquiry (Redfern Report) into post-mortem practice at Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool. It was expected that this inquiry report would influence post-mortem practice in general and communication with parents in particular and in May 2003 a code of practice for clinical staff was produced by the Department of Health (DH) (2003a). This article discusses the code of practice Families and Post Mortems and explores the relevance of these recommendations to neonatal and children's nurses.
In the second of a two-part article the author describes the findings of the survey conducted in hospital maternity units in the South and West Executive NHS Region in England. The units were asked about their current risk management activity and implementation of the recommendations of the Confidential Enquiry into Stillbirths and Death in Infancy (CESDI). The results indicate that CESDI is recognised and its' more specific recommendations are adopted into clinical practice. However the link with risk management could be developed further. In addition, CESDI coordinators could provide additional education input to aid dissemination of CESDI findings.
In the first part of a two-part article, the author examines the background for a research article about the Confidential Enquiry into Sudden Death in Infancy (CESDI), its recommendations and the implications for practice with particular reference to clinical governance and risk management. This part provides an overview of clinical governance, with particular reference to risk management. With 60% of the bill for negligence claims occur in this area, there is also an examination of litigation.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.