Fractured neck of femur is a common, painful condition in the elderly for which regional nerve block techniques provide effective and safe analgesia. Presently, regional nerve blocks are administered by doctors, usually later in the patient journey. Regional nerve block via Fascia lliaca Nerve Block has been demonstrated to be safe and effective when administered by trained nurses.
This project is designed on the hypothesis that early nurse-initiated Fascia lliaca Nerve Block can be successfully introduced and sustained within a tertiary level emergency department – and can be then generalised and scaled up to other emergency departments. It aims to demonstrate that early nurse-initiated Fascia lliaca Nerve Block can be delivered to a higher proportion of eligible patients than current practice, is at least equi-analgesic and equivalently safe with standard medical regional nerve block, and can be delivered significantly earlier than medically-initiated regional nerve block.
After twelve months, early nurse-initiated Fascia lliaca Nerve Block will be re-evaluated at both sites with respect to embeddedness, safety and effective practice.
Collaborators: Central Coast Local Health District, Agency for Clinical Innovation, College of Emergency Nursing Australasia, Australasian College for Emergency Medicine, Kolling Institute, Royal North Shore Hospital, Gosford Hospital