Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the safety and practicality of using advanced neonatal nurse practitioners (ANNPs) to lead acute neonatal transfers.

Design: Comparison of transport times, transport interventions, and physiological variables, covering the first four complete years of operating a transport service that uses ANNPs and specialist paediatric registrars (SpRs) interchangeably.

Setting: Tertiary neonatal transport service.

Patients: The first 51 transfers of sick infants under 28 days of age by an ANNP led transport team into Nottingham compared with the next consecutive SpR led transfer after each ANNP led one.

Main outcome measures: Transport times; interventions and support given during stabilisation for transfer and during transfer; condition on completion of transfer, assessed from blood glucose, systolic blood pressure, pH, oxygenation, and temperature.

Results: The ANNP led team responded more rapidly to requests for transfer and took longer to stabilise babies. The groups undertook similar numbers of procedures during stabilisation, and there were no differences in the ventilatory and other support that infants needed in transit. The infants transferred by the doctor led group had worse values for pH (doctor led, 7.31 (6.50–7.46); ANNP led, 7.35 (7.04–7.50), p = 0.02) and Pao₂ (doctor led, 6.7 (2.4–13.1); ANNP led, 8.7 (3.5–17.0); p = 0.008) before transfer (all values median (range)). Comparisons of the infant’s condition before and after transfer showed a significant improvement in temperature for the infants transferred by ANNP led teams (36.8°C (34.0–37.8) v 37.0°C (34.6–38.0), p = 0.001) and in oxygen saturation (96% (88–100) v 98% (92–100), p = 0.01). There were no differences between the ANNP and doctor led groups in the values obtained for any variable after transfer.

Conclusions: Clinical condition on completion of transport is similar for babies transferred by ANNP and doctor led teams. ANNP led transport appears to be practical and safe.