The influence of outreach in the development of the nurse consultant role in critical care: Cause or effect?

SummaryBackgroundCritical care nurse consultant roles have evolved against a background of service innovation that has resulted in the development of critical care outreach services. Despite compelling evidence that there was a serious problem with the management of critically ill patients in the ward environment, there is little evidence to support outreach as a concept or as a role for nurse consultants.AimsThe aims for this part of the study were to:•investigate what critical care outreach functions have developed in acute hospitals;•analyse whether there was a significant role difference between the whole group of critical care nurse consultants and those defined as critical care outreach.MethodsA national postal survey of all 72 critical care nurse consultants in post in England by August 2003; response rate 72% (n = 52). All data was entered on to a computer anonymously and analysed using SPSS version 11.5. A factor analysis revealed a sub-set of nurse consultants who had a significantly greater involvement in outreach activity.ResultsCritical care nurse consultants have a high involvement in the development of care for critically ill patients outside the traditional boundaries of critical care. A sub-set emerged that has a significantly greater involvement in outreach activity. This includes roles such as working with an individual or team to develop their practice (whole group mean involvement score M = 4.45, outreach M = 4.88, p < 0.001); developing education outside the ICU/HDU (whole group M = 4.13, outreach M = 4.88, p < 0.001) and receiving nurse led referrals from the wards (whole group M = 3.92, outreach M = 4.81, p < 0.001).ConclusionsGiven the lack of evidence for outreach, organisations should consider the high level of involvement of the nurse consultant outside the traditional boundaries of the ICU/HDU.