Evaluation of advanced neonatal nurse practitioners: confidential enquiry into the management of sentinel cases

Objective: To evaluate the quality of the neonatal care delivered by an advanced neonatal nurse practitioner led service at Ashington Hospital, Northumberland. Setting: Maternity service with no resident paediatric medical input. Design: Comparison of quality measures on sentinel cases with five comparator hospitals using modified confidential enquiry. Results: On six out of seven dimensions, the neonatal nurse practitioner service performed better than the average of the five comparator hospitals, and overall ranked second. Conclusion: Good quality neonatal care can be delivered by advanced neonatal nurse practitioners alone, without the support of resident junior paediatricians.