Development of the 24/7 Nurse Practitioner Model on the Inpatient Pediatric General Surgery Service at a Large Tertiary Care Children's Hospital and Associated Outcomes

Nurse practitioners (NPs) have been providing high-quality and safe patient care for a few decades, and evidence showing the extent of their impact is emerging. This article describes the implementation of a 24/7 NP patient care model on an inpatient pediatric general surgery service in a tertiary free-standing Children's Hospital in the Northeastern United States. The literature shows that there is limited evidence regarding NP models of care and their effect on patient outcomes. In response to policy changes leading to reduction of resident work hours and a more acute and complex inpatient pediatric general surgery patient population, our existing NP model evolved into a 24/7 NP Model in June 2011. The results from two quality improvement projects showed positive registered nurse and attending surgeon staff satisfaction with the 24/7 NP Model of care and a decreased trend of unplanned intensive care unit patient transfers after the 24/7 NP Model implementation. These findings further support the evidence in the literature that NPs provide safe and quality patient care.