A 15 page research proposal that outlines the design for am empirical investigation into the use of nurse practitioners in emergency departments within an American setting. While there is a great research in other countries on this topic, the extensive literature review shows that studies in American settings are lacking on this aspect of nursing practice. Bibliography lists 16 sources.
Name of Research Paper File: D0_khednps.rtf
Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
Kleinpell, 2006). As a result of factors associated with ED use, such as overcrowding and extended wait times, there is an increasing trend to use the services of nurse practitioners
(NPs) as medical screeners and this role requires that NPs "screen out patient who do not need emergency care and to refer these individuals to other sources of care" (Cole
and Kleinpell, 2006, p. 189). Also, in many instances, NPs, practicing within emergency clinical environments, provide certain aspects of primary care to non-urgent patients. Furthermore, Brook and Crouch assert
that NP emergency practice has grown, within the context of North American trends, to encompass NP "diagnosing and managing patients with increasingly complex injuries and pathology" (Brook and Crouch, 2004,
p. 215). According to Cole and Kleinpell (2006), NPs have been practicing in emergency care settings for the past three decades. This statement is verified by nursing literature, which
indicates that NPs were practicing in emergency care settings in 1975 (Cole and Ramirez, 2002). However, despite the fact that NPs have long practiced with EDs and this trend is
increasing, there is relatively little known about the specifics of NP practice within this environment (Cole and Ramirez, 2002). The research literature that addresses NP practice in EDs largely
concerns the how NP practice has been implemented in countries other than the US. The majority of research articles available in various online databases, results in accounts of studies conducted
in the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada, but few studies have addressed NP practice as it impacts conditions in American EDs. As the literature review included in this proposal
will clearly show, there is a need to address the effects of NP practice within the context of American EDs, in order to ascertain the effects that NPs handling non-urgent