International emergency nursing
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Nurse-initiated radiographic-test protocol for ankle injuries: A randomized controlled trial.
Nurse-initiated radiographic-test protocol was compared with usual practice in reducing unnecessary ankle and foot radiographic-test requests and shortening patients' length of stay (LOS) in an emergency department (ED) by reducing their waiting time for physician reassessment. ⋯ Implementing the nurse-initiated radiographic-test protocol reduced unnecessary ankle and foot radiographic-test requests and shortened patients' LOS in the ED by reducing their waiting time for physician reassessment.