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 Immediate Medical Care Save Lives |
BASICS HQ Turret House Turret Lane Ipswich IP4 1DL Tel: 0870 1654999 Fax: 08701654949 e-mail BASICS HQ |
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Registered Nurses specialising in pre-hospital care
Registered Nurses are playing an important role in many BASICS schemes across UK. As an example, in Birmingham, the CARE Team have developed a unique large pool of nursing expertise in the area of pre-hospital care. These nurses play a full part in the delivery of specialist emergency care to the patient in the pre-hospital setting. The CARE Team has demonstrated that treatment strength is increased when a pre-hospital trained and experienced Registered Nurses and Doctors work together. Across UK there are other examples of Registered Nurses providing emergency care in the pre-hospital setting. Over the past 30 years, Emergency Nursing has changed dramatically. Once the domain of nurses working in an emergency department, it has now spread into minor injury units, walk-in centres, ambulance services and telephone advice services. During this time, the role of the emergency nurse has become ever more demanding and diverse. The present clinical and organisational design of health care is biased towards service management principles, which are important to delivering an effective service. Nevertheless, many emergency nurses also want to gain recognition for their clinical skills, knowledge and expertise. The idea of nurses working outside of hospital in an emergency role is not new, if we look at modern military history it provides us with evidence of a wide range of activities that have been undertaken by Registered Nurses in the out-of-hospital setting,
Many of these roles still exist within the Forces and continue to develop. Emergency Care Practitioners On a more national level, Registered Nurses are now working alongside our ambulance service collegues with innovative developments such as the Emergency Care Practitioner (ECP) project. As ECP's, Registered Nurses and Paramedics are sharing educational pathways and using accident and emergency skills, enhanced with primary care skills, to deliver pre-hospital emergency care. This development is part of the emergency care practitioner (ECP) project guided by the changing workforce programme. ECP's are leading the way with emergency care reforms in the provision of out of hours cover. The Registered Nurses profile Registered Nurses provide a range of skills that can be generally grouped into four areas:
The level that these skils are expressed by the practitioner is varied and may range from the first responder role delivering the all important first defibrillator shock, to the immediate care practitoner who is able to work at Advanced Nurse Practitioner level with a high degrees of clinical autonomy and decision making. Registered Nurses have a long history of working within the Voluntary Aid Societies (Red Cross, St John's Ambulance) in lead roles and have provided emergency care cover for events ranging from small village fetes to large national sporting events. Private companies have valued the contriution of Registered Nurses with pre-hospital care specialisation and utilise them in similar roles to that seen by the VAS. Education and standard setting As a Registered Nurse, continued professional development is at the heart of practice and education forms a large part of today's nursing role. The pre-hospital Registered Nurses has a wide range of courses and development opportunities to select from:
For the last five years or so, professional portfolios have been maintained by nurses to adhere to registration requirments (PREP) of the NMC. This record keeping and committment to professional development sits well with BASICS accreditation for Registered Nurses. For more details about BASICS accreditation for Registered Nurses click here. Diploma in Immediate Medical Care The gold standard in pre-hospital care examination in UK is the Diploma in Immediate Medical Care awarded by the Faculty of Pre-hospital Care of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. Currently, the DIMC exam is open to Doctors, Registered Nurses, State Registered Paramedics and others approved by the Faculty board. It is generally accepted that Registered Nurses who prepare for the exam, perform well. They appear to come with a balance of sound theroretical understanding and good practical 'hands on' skill. The Faculty of Pre-hospital Care have a number of Registered Nurses as full examiners for the DIMC. For more information on the examination and to request the curriculum please contact the Faculty administrator. Research and Development Registered Nurses have contributed to many areas of research and development within the field of PHC. Faculty of Pre-hospital Care consensus papers Important Faculty of Pre-hospital Care consensus papers have had input from representatives from the Nursing profession. Such papers include:
More details on these consensus papers and their publication citations will appear here shortly. Joint Royal Colleges Ambulance Liasion Sub-committee The Joint Royal Colleges Ambulance Liasion Committee (JRCALC) clinical guidelines consensus sub-committee invited Registered Nurses with expertise in PHC to contribute to this important guiding document (JRCALC Guidelines v4). These guidelines steer the training and scope of practice of State Registered Paramedics and Ambulance Technicians across UK. First Person on Scene Awards
Registered Nurses have been part of a major standard setting exercise by working in partnership with IHCD to develop the First Person on Scene Awards. These awards, FPOS basic and FPOS intermediate are provided to set national standards for ambulance services who utilise lay First Responders (FR) and provide a training structor for the FR role. IHCD awards are available for Community Responders. These awards are offered mainly through NHS Ambulance Service and have the clinical endorsement of the Faculty of Pre-Hospital Care
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