title: Outpatient nurses: from handmaiden to autonomous practitioner.
abstract: Little seems to have been written about health promotion in outpatients' departments. This article argues that outpatient nurses have the potential to play a significant part in promoting people's health. Outpatient nurses may be the first hospital nurses that an individual meets. What people observe and how they are treated may make a difference to both their experience of hospital care and their health. Outpatient nurses may have been perceived as the doctors' handmaidens of yesterday, but today they are evolving into an effective force for change. For example, evaluation of nurse-led outpatients' clinics is showing that they have the potential to complement doctor-led clinics and improve the healthcare experience of patients. It is argued that the health-promoting role of the outpatient nurse can be enhanced by a department that is a health-promoting environment.
authors.affiliation: Health Visitor in Southborough, Tunbridge Wells.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Brenchley
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Robinson
mesh_terms: D000553:Ambulatory Care; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D024802:Nurse's Role; D009738:Nursing Service, Hospital; D010044:Outpatient Clinics, Hospital