Can nurses, working in the emergency department, independently clear cervical spines?: a review of the literature

Multicentre prospective validation of use of the Canadian C-Spine Rule by triage nurses in the emergency department

“…More commonly, investigators have studied evaluation by nurses of ankle and knee injuries. [23][24][25][26] Recent review articles have strongly supported the concept of nurses in the emergency department clinically clearing the cervical spine, [27][28][29] but we have been able to identify only four original research papers assessing the potential for nurses to evaluate the cervical spine. Hsieh and colleagues 12 described a small US cohort study that evaluated a nonvalidated clearance protocol, similar to the criteria of the National Emergency X-Radiography Utilization Study (also knowns as NEXUS).…”

Perceived facilitators and barriers to clinical clearance of the cervical spine by emergency department nurses: A major step towards changing practice in the emergency department

“…More commonly, investigators have studied nursing evaluation of ankle and (Szucs et al, 2001;Kec et al, 2003;Fiesseler et al, 2004;Derksen et al, 2005). Recent review articles strongly support the concept of ED nurses clinically clearing the c-spine (Charters, 2004;Danis, 2005;Zimmerman, 2006). We have been able to identify only five original research papers that assessed the potential for nurses to evaluate the c-spine.…”