title: The influence of a nurse practitioner on out of hours work intensity for surgical house officers.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: University Department of Surgery, Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh.
authors.forename: N C
authors.initials: NC
authors.lastname: Henderson
authors.forename: D T
authors.initials: DT
authors.lastname: Cookson
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Plumley
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cairns
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Paterson-Brown
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency; D008297:Male; D008485:Medical Audit; D009722:Nurse Practitioners / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D011446:Prospective Studies; D013503:Surgery Department, Hospital; D000078329:Workforce; D016526:Workload