International journal of evidence-based healthcare
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Int J Evid Based Healthc · Mar 2009
The clinical effectiveness of nurse practitioners' management of minor injuries in an adult emergency department: a systematic review.
Background The increasing cost of healthcare in Australia demands changes in the way healthcare is delivered. Nurse practitioners have been introduced into specialty areas including emergency departments. Specific interventions are known to include the treatment and management of minor injuries, but little has been reported on their work. ⋯ Evidence comparing the clinical effectiveness of nurse practitioners to mainstream management of minor injuries was fair to poor methodological quality. When comparable data were pooled, there were no significant differences (P < 0.05) between nurse practitioners and junior doctors. Conclusions The results emphasise the need for more high-quality research using appropriate outcome measures in the area of clinical effectiveness of nurse practitioners, particularly interventions that improve outcomes for presentations to emergency departments and address issues of waiting and congestion.