Initial Assessment Acuity (Supporting NHSE Acuity Programme)

About the NHSE Acuity Programme

The Faculty of Emergency Nursing (FEN) is delighted to be participating in the NHS England Acuity Programme.

Across acute healthcare provider organisations, delays to initial assessment in Emergency Care and overcrowding within Emergency Departments consistently feature among the highest risks on organisational risk registers.

Patient safety must be everyone’s highest priority. The NHS England Acuity tool is already demonstrating improvements in patient safety, patient experience, and staff experience.

To support Emergency Departments in implementing this initiative, FEN has developed:

  • Clinical assessment tools, including Mini-CEX and ESLE, aligned to the NHS England Acuity Programme

  • A structured suite of bespoke webinars designed for experienced Emergency Nurses

Resources (Open Access)

Webinars:

  1. NHSE Acuity Project Overview – Standardising Acuity Measurements in the ED. Dr Tom Hughes, NHSE Clinical Project Lead. 
  2. NHSE Acuity Project Update. Dr Tom Hughes and Sade Matakitoga, NHSE Assistant Head of Non-Admitted Pathways
  3. How to Assess using FEN’s Minicex for Primary Assessment
  4. How to Assess using FEN’s Minicex for Secondary Assessment
  5. How to Assess using FEN’s ESLE for Primary Assessment Nurse
  6. How to Assess using FEN’s ESLE for Secondary Assessment Nurse 
 

Assessment Proformas:

  1. Mini-cex for Primary Assessment
  2. Mini-Cex for Secondary Assessment 
  3. ESLE for Primary Assessment Nurse
  4. ESLE for Secondary Assessment Nurse
  5. Acuity Project Initial Assessment Audit Tool
  6. Link to FENs Assessment Other Proformas and Portfolio Tools

Other Useful Documents

Safe staffing for nursing in A&E departments: the
full NICE safe staffing guideline

Involvement of FEN in the Project

The  ED acuity model is a collaborative project led by NHSE, in which the clinical content has been defined by the relevant professional groups together with Lay (patient) representation:

  1. Faculty of Emergency Nursing
  2. Royal College of Nursing
  3. Emergency Nurse Consultants Group
  4. Royal College of Emergency Medicine
  5. Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health
 

FEN had representation on the following project Groups:

  1. Main Project Board
  2. Nursing Subgroup
  3. PEWS Emergency and Unscheduled Care Oversight Group
  4. PEWS Emergency and Unscheduled Care Working Group

Webinars (Subscription Required)

We have a series of webinars available to teach Initial Assessment. For those who have previous experience of using other initial assessment tools, there are four essential webinars:

    1. Introduction to Initial Assessment
    2. Primary Initial Assessment
    3. Secondary Initial Assessment
    4. Managing Initial Assessment
    5.  Considerations in Redirection 2


For those who have never used or have limited experience of using a previous initial assessment tool in clinical practice, then a more comprehensive education is required.

We welcome discussions with Practice Development/Clinical Educator leads for our recommendations on a suitable webinar combination.

We can also discuss the option of accredited assessment of Emergency Nurses undertaking Initial Assessment for those who would prefer that additional level of assurance of Emergency Nursing practice

Purchase of a subscription to FEN is required to access these webinars. This also gives access to the rest of our extensive webinar library.