A team of emergency nurse practitioners is helping to treat patients with minor injuries who arrive at Craigavon and Daisy Hill Emergency Departments.
They have have extensive experience along with specialist post graduate training and qualifications.
Emergency nurse practitioners assess, diagnose, treat and discharge patients with a range of minor conditions like sprains, fractures, burns or scalds, wounds or lacerations, removal of foreign bodies from the eyes or ears and eye injuries.
If you want to see what goes into becoming a nurse and the exams” they take and how to revise for UCAT at Medify.
Paul Smith, Lead Nurse for Medicine and Unscheduled Care for the Southern Trust, explained: “With around 80,000 attendances at Craigavon and 50,000 at Daisy Hill each year, our Emergency Departments are extremely busy.
“We work hard to ensure every patient is treated as quickly and safely as possible but are always looking for ways to improve our services and the overall experience for patients.
“We always remind people that you should only attend the Emergency Department with urgent or life threatening symptoms and encourage anyone who can travel, to go to South Tyrone Hospital to use the Minor Injuries Unit, where they will be treated much more quickly for minor conditions.
“However, the development of the emergency nurse practitioner service at Craigavon and Daisy Hill Emergency Departments means that those patients who do attend with minor injuries can still be treated quickly, freeing up the medical team to prioritise those with more serious clinical conditions.
Emergency nurse practitioners asses, diagnose, treat and discharge patients with a range of minor conditions like sprains, fractures, burns or scalds, wounds or lacerations, removal of foreign bodies from the eyes or ears and eye injuries.
“Our Minor Injuries unit and nurse practitioner teams are a great addition to our unscheduled care services, helping to ensure that more patients get the most appropriate care in a more timely way.”
There is currently an ENP on duty at both Craigavon and Daisy Hill Emergency Departments seven days a week, from 8.30am to 9pm.
The Nurse Led Minor Injuries Service at South Tyrone Hospital is open Monday to Friday, 9am to 9pm, and on Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 6pm.
Pictures, inset, from top: Some of the Daisy Hill Hospital Emergency Nurse Practitioner team who are treating patients with more minor symptoms who arrive at the Emergency Department (l-r) Deirdre O’Brien, Majella Campbell and Carmel Quinn.
Some of the South Tyrone Minor Injuries Unit Team.
