• Jane E Feetham, Will Christian, Jonathan R Benger, Rebecca Hoskins, David Odd, and Mark D Lyttle.
• Emergency Department, Bristol Royal Hospital for Children, Bristol, UK.
• Emerg Med J. 2015 May 1;32(5):379-82.

ObjectiveThe aim of this project is to establish the unplanned reattendance rate for paediatric emergency nurse practitioners (PENPs) working in a designated paediatric emergency department (PED) while identifying the case mix of patients seen by PENPs compared with their medical counterparts.DesignQuantitative data regarding patient characteristics and reattendance were collected during retrospective review of case notes across two representative 2-week periods.SettingThe study site is a tertiary urban PED with an annual attendance of 32 000 patients aged from birth to 15 years.Main Outcome MeasuresReattendance rates, patient characteristics, triage scores, presenting complaint and numbers of patients discussed with a paediatric emergency medicine consultant were evaluated.ResultsThe results showed that PENPs have a lower reattendance rate (1.75%) when compared with senior and junior doctors in training (4.29%, 5.76%); however, PENPs treat a different population of children. When the odds of PENP reattendance are adjusted for this, the significance of the difference becomes less certain.ConclusionsPENPs work autonomously when seeing children presenting with minor trauma and make a positive contribution in achieving the reattendance Clinical Quality Indicator.Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

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