Quality Research Article Critique Factors Influencing Emergency Use of Nurse Practitioners: A Critique
Problem and Purpose This is critique of a Qualitative Nursing article, the article is: Factors Influencing the Decision to Use Nurse Practitioners in the Emergency Department by Laurie A. McGee, MN, ARNP and Louise Kaplan, PhD, ARNP, published in Journal of Emergency Nursing, Volume 33, Number 5, October 2007. The problem that is stated in the article is there is a growing and serious problem facing the overcrowding of emergency rooms within the United States. There is a current epidemic of the population that relies on emergency room care as primary care. “The 2004 National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS) reports an 18% increase in the number of visits to emergency departments from 1994 to 2004.” This causes long wait times and may cause emergency room doctors and nurses to be overworked allowing for a possibility for mistakes to handle the volume. “Overcrowding is defined as a situation in which demand for emergency services exceeds the ability of a department to provide quality care within acceptable time frames.” Overcrowding can delay care which is a patient safety issue and can lower patient satisfaction. “The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations' review of sentinel events has attributed patient deaths to delays in patient care. In hospital emergency departments, delay of treatment is the most common type of sentinel event.” It is stated in this article that of the 14 million visits to the emergency room only 12.9% are considered emergent. The problem is stated that some emergency rooms only employ physicians and the can burden the physicians with the non-emergent complaints. There is evidence the use of nurse practitioners in the emergency department do provide high quality care. This description of the problem is