The advance nurse practitioner in critical care: a workload evaluation

Area of Science:

• Critical Care Nursing
• Advanced Practice Nursing
• Healthcare Workforce Development

Background:

• The Advanced Nurse Practitioner in Critical Care (ANP-CC) role was established to support intensive care and high dependency units.
• The ANP-CC role was designed to undertake tasks traditionally performed by medical staff.
• An evaluation was necessary to define the scope of work and workload for these new positions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the specific activities of advanced nursing practice posts in critical care settings.
• To assess the workload associated with these advanced nursing roles.
• To analyze prescribing patterns of advanced nurse practitioners within critical care.

Main Methods:

• A data collection form was utilized to record clinical and patient-related activities.
• Data were collected over one week for a single post-holder.
• Descriptive statistics were employed for data analysis using Microsoft Excel.

Main Results:

• Ward rounds in intensive care and high dependency units constituted 46% of the ANP-CC's weekly activity.
• Patient assessment and prescribing were primary activities during ward rounds.
• Independent patient assessment represented 12% of the workload, highlighting a broad scope of practice.

Conclusions:

• Advanced Nurse Practitioners in Critical Care successfully executed medical tasks they were trained for.
• ANP-CCs, as experienced nurses with enhanced skills, improved the delivery of care to critically ill patients.
• The broad nature of ANP-CC prescribing reinforced the decision against a restricted formulary.