AIMS: To assess the feasibility of training nurse practitioners to perform bone marrow aspiration and trephine biopsy, and to compare the quality of these samples with those obtained by medical staff. METHODS: A retrospective audit was undertaken of nurse practitioner and medical staff performance in bone marrow procedures in a busy haematology day unit. RESULTS: Nurse practitioners fared favourably in comparison with medical staff in performing bone marrow trephine biopsies, with mean biopsy lengths of 11 mm and 10.7 mm respectively. However, only 78% of the smears obtained by the nurses were judged technically satisfactory, compared with 91% prepared by doctors. This discrepancy was thought to be due largely to the quality of slide spreading. CONCLUSIONS: With motivated staff and a structured educational and training programme it is possible for nurse practitioners to perform the techniques of bone marrow aspiration and biopsy, and obtain specimens of satisfactory quality, thus improving efficiency of the haematology day unit and increasing quality of patient care.
AIMS: To assess the feasibility of training nurse practitioners to perform bone marrow aspiration and trephine biopsy, and to compare the quality of these samples with those obtained by medical staff. METHODS: A retrospective audit was undertaken of nurse practitioner and medical staff performance in bone marrow procedures in a busy haematology day unit. RESULTS: Nurse practitioners fared favourably in comparison with medical staff in performing bone marrow trephine biopsies, with mean biopsy lengths of 11 mm and 10.7 mm respectively. However, only 78% of the smears obtained by the nurses were judged technically satisfactory, compared with 91% prepared by doctors. This discrepancy was thought to be due largely to the quality of slide spreading. CONCLUSIONS: With motivated staff and a structured educational and training programme it is possible for nurse practitioners to perform the techniques of bone marrow aspiration and biopsy, and obtain specimens of satisfactory quality, thus improving efficiency of the haematology day unit and increasing quality of patient care.
Authors: Mihai Merzianu; Adrienne Groman; Alan Hutson; Claudiu Cotta; Russell K Brynes; Attilio Orazi; Vishnu Reddy; Julie Teruya-Feldstein; Ramila Amre; Manjula Balasubramanian; Guilherme Brandao; Sindhu Cherian; Elizabeth Courville; David Czuchlewski; Guang Fan; David Grier; Daniela Hoehn; Kedar V Inamdar; Ridas Juskevicius; Prabhjot Kaur; John Lazarchick; Michael R Lewis; Rodney R Miles; Jerome B Myers; Michel R Nasr; Hina N Qureishi; Horatiu Olteanu; Valentin G Robu; Gratian Salaru; Neerja Vajpayee; Jeffrey Vos; Ling Zhang; Shanxiang Zhang; Le Aye; Elisa Brega; James E Coad; John Grantham; Sinisa Ivelja; Robert McKenna; Kieran Sultan; Gregory Wilding; Robert Hutchison; LoAnn Peterson; Richard T Cheney Journal: Am J Clin Pathol Date: 2018-10-01 Impact factor: 2.493