Title : New set of leaders: Assessing nurse practitioner impact in the ICU
Abstract:
Due to the increasing number of patients with life threatening diseases requiring critical care management, intensive care units (ICUs) across the United States are rapidly being filled. It has been reported that understaffing has been a stressor among health care workers, and more importantly lead to the risk for unsafe and ineffective patient care. Advanced practice providers such as nurse practitioners and physician assistants have been the mid-level providers treating patients within their scope to alleviate the burden from attending physicians. This literature review aimed to assess if care provided in ICUs by nurse practitioners is equal to or more effective than care provided by physicians by examining quality metrics, length of stay, and mortality. Databases PubMed, CINAHL, and Embase were used and provided the eight articles used to acquire our data. Overall, this research revealed the work of nurse practitioners in ICUs led to decreased length of ICU stay and improved physician and nurse practitioner satisfaction rates. Further research could be conducted on sole treatment provided by nurse practitioners, and not advanced practice providers combined (physician assistants and nurse practitioners).
