A systematic review of the impact of nurse-initiated medications in the emergency department.

BACKGROUND: Nurse-initiated medications are one of the most important strategies used to facilitate timely care for people who present to Emergency Departments (EDs). The purpose of this paper was to systematically review the evidence of nurse-initiated medications to guide future practice and research.

METHODS: A systematic review of the literature was conducted to locate published studies and Grey literature. All studies were assessed independently by two independent reviewers for relevance using titles and abstracts, eligibility dictated by the inclusion criteria, and methodological quality.

RESULTS: Five experimental studies were included in this review: one randomised controlled trial and four quasi-experimental studies conducted in paediatric and adult EDs. The nurse-initiated medications were salbutamol for respiratory conditions and analgesia for painful conditions, which enabled patients to receive the medications quicker by half-an-hour compared to those who did not have nurse-initiated medications. The intervention had no effect on adverse events, doctor wait time and length of stay. Nurse-initiated analgesia was associated with increased likelihood of receiving analgesia, achieving clinically-relevant pain reduction, and better patient satisfaction.

CONCLUSION: Nurse-initiated medications are safe and beneficial for ED patients. However, randomised controlled studies are required to strengthen the validity of results.