@article{ref1,
title="Establishing a nurse-based psychiatric CL service in the accident and emergency department of a general hospital in Germany",
journal="Nervenarzt",
year="2014",
author="Burian, R. and Protheroe, D. and Grunow, R. and Diefenbacher, A.",
volume="85",
number="9",
pages="1217-1224",
abstract="INTRODUCTION: Patients with mental health problems in accident and emergency departments (A&E) are frequent users and often difficult to handle. Failure in managing these patients can cause adversities to both patients and A&E staff. It has been shown that nurse-based psychiatric consultation-liaison (CL) services work successfully and cost effectively in English-speaking countries, but they are hardly found in European countries. The aim of this study was to determine whether such a liaison service can be established in the A&E of a German general hospital. We describe structural and procedural elements of this service and present data of A&E patients who were referred to the newly established service during the first year of its existence, as well as an evaluation of this nurse-led service by non-psychiatric staff in the A&E and psychiatrists of the hospital's department of psychiatry. <br><br>SUBJECTS AND METHODS: In 2008 a nurse-based psychiatric CL-service was introduced to the A&E of the Königin Elisabeth Herzberge (KEH) general hospital in the city of Berlin. Pathways for the nurse's tasks were developed and patient-data collected from May 2008 till May 2009. An evaluation by questionnaire of attitudes towards the service of A&E staff and psychiatrists of the hospital's psychiatric department was performed at the end of this period. <br><br>RESULTS: Although limited by German law that many clinical decisions to be performed by physicians only, psychiatric CL-nurses can work successfully in an A&E if prepared by special training and supervised by a CL-psychiatrist. The evaluation of the service showed benefits with respect to satisfaction and skills of staff with regard to the management of psychiatrically ill patients. <br><br>CONCLUSION: Nurse-based psychiatric CL-services in A&E departments of general hospitals, originally developed in English-speaking countries, can be adapted for and implemented in a European country like Germany. Open access: This article is published with open access at link.springer.com.<p /><p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0028-2804",
doi="10.1007/s00115-014-4069-8",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00115-014-4069-8"
}