As a practicing nurse I have always disagreed with extending roles for people with little or no knowledge of disease processes or anatomy and physiology, for instance, when taking pulse, BP etc, as a nurse I would know instantly when to act upon worrying signs, e.g. low BP, tachycardia I would be automatically thinking is this patient bleeding somewhere and pput them on very close obs, too may times, I have looked at charts and seen vital obs recorded and left, this puts patients in great danger. The answer is to extend the role of ward clerks, less paper work for nurses so that we can be freed to do the job we were trained for. May I just add. modern new nurse graduates are worringly ill educated regarding disease processes, most wouldn't know what you were talking about if you asked them what the signs and symptoms of cholecystitis was.
Jennifer Siami. LL.B(Hons) P.G.C.E. Registered nurse.