Payne Sarah, Cole Elaine
St Lawrence Medical Practice, Braintree, Essex.
Emerg Nurse. 2012 Sep;20(5):32-7. doi: 10.7748/en2012.09.20.5.32.c9291.
Many patients with minor burns present at emergency departments and urgent care centres, where their management is often undertaken by experienced nurses rather than experts in treating burns. This article describes a small study of the clinical decision making that underpins nurses' management of minor burns in these non-specialist settings. The results suggest that, due to a lack of relevant research, nurses base their decisions on previous experience or expert colleagues' opinions and advice rather than on the evidence.
