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Nurses may make surgical house officers obsolete
EDITOR,--Sue Dowling and colleagues' article on nurse practitioners mentions the perceived benefits and costs for the related doctors, nurses, and managers but does not deal with relationships across specialties.1 The role of surgical house officers has always been, among other things, to liaise with anaesthetic staff in the preoperative management of patients having both elective and emergency surgery. The recent introduction of surgical nurse practitioners in my hospital (the posts are similar to posts A and B described in the article) has led to an increase in discussions with anaesthetic staff after preassessment and, therefore, to more appropriately tailored investigations, while fewer important drugs are omitted. This improvement will undoubtedly have its own cost benefit in terms of more efficient use of operating time in the event of a cancellation and, one would hope, a decrease in operative complications.
If the surgical house officer can be replaced--or, indeed, bettered--then surgery
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- With nurse practitioners, who needs house officers?
- Sue Dowling, Sue Barrett, and Richard West
BMJ 1995 311: 309-313.[Extract] [Full Text]
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