Task Shifting by Nurse Practitioner in Neuroendovascular Therapy

As a solution to the shortage of and overwork among physicians, task shifting and task sharing have been proposed for health-care professionals. This study aimed to investigate the role of nurse practitioners (NPs) in neurovascular interventions and evaluate the validity of task shifting in our institute.

Medical records from 684 neurovascular intervention cases from 2020 to 2023 were retrospectively reviewed, and the tasks performed by NPs were investigated. Additionally, the procedure times between cases in which NPs acted as the first assistant alongside a physician (NP + physician group) and those in which 2 physicians performed the procedure (physician + physician group) were compared.

The main tasks performed by NPs included preoperative checks, assistance during the procedure, postoperative care, the initial handling of complications, and inputting orders. No significant differences in procedure times were found between the NP + physician and physician + physician groups.

NPs showed potential for task shifting in perioperative neurovascular interventions, particularly in assisting, providing care, inputting orders, and initially handling complications. However, further discussions and improvements are needed regarding task shifting in emergency cases and work arrangements for NPs.