Keeping experience at the bedside: the emergency consultant nurse role

The consultant nurse concept has not yet been transferred to the military setting. The motivation for developing the role in the NHS was to improve the quality of patient care by strengthening professional leadership and extending the clinical career ladder. The consultant nurse may be defined as an expert in their clinical field, possessing expert leadership and visionary skills. The role is based on four domains: expert practice, professional leadership, education and research. Typically, the emergency consultant nurse spends 50% of their time working clinically, thereby providing senior clinical expertise and adding value to the clinical role. In a military context the consultant nurse role could be perceived as the coming together of the senior command and administrative role and the clinical role. The military has the opportunity to develop a senior clinical emergency nurse role encompassing elements of the civilian consultant nurse model, which may strengthen leadership, provide a central resource of expertise and raise the profile of military nursing. This has the added potential to provide inspiration for junior nurses and retain experienced emergency nurses in the clinical arena.