Underpaid and overworked, that's how our nurses are often viewed. New guidelines though could see them taking on a role, previously only given to consultants and GPs, deciding whether or not to use CPR. The guidelines put together by the British Medical Association, the Royal College of Nursing and the Resuscitation Council are not a government law. Each local authority will be responsible for implementing the guidelines themselves.Patients rights charity, the Patients Association say they have concerns.
"Does it mean another postcode lottery in relation to health? We've got enough of those already, frankly. And then nurse is being able to make decisions normally made by consultants who are described as suitably experienced nurses. I don't know what that means."
"Locally health care services should be deciding who are their suitably experienced nurses. And that will almost certainly mean people like nurse consultants.But that they will need to actually set up the definition of how you decide that somebody is experienced, is suitable to make this type of decision."
The BMA says nurses are generally closer to severely ill patients than doctors and are thought to tend to know more about the personality of the patients and their attitude towards death.But is it enough?
For most of us, our experience of CPR is taken from hospital television dramas, of which there are many. patients are often resuscitated and sent on their way. But real life is somewhat different. The outcomes are extremely variable. The survival rate after a cardiorespiratory arrest in CPR is in actual fact relatively low. In hospitals,the chances are at best about 15-20%. Outside hospital it's lower still, just 5-10%.Critics argue that patients need properly qualified consultants and GPs to make such a decision which is literally one of life or death.
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Cardiorespiratory arrest is cessation of cardiac and respiratory function. In practice, the term is also applied to acute severe cardiorespiratory dysfunction.
GP General Practitioner (family doctor)
CPR Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation
BMA British Medical Association
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