Abstract
A sore throat is one of the leading complaints that bring patients to the emergency department each year. The majority of these patients have a viral illness that requires symptom management only. Canadian emergency departments are short-staffed and crowded with dissatisfied patients facing long waits, whereas nurses are not working to their full scope of practice. To address these issues, a delegated medical function was designed for the assessment, treatment, and management of pharyngitis (sore throat). J. Kotter's (1996) Change Management Theory was used to guide this project, which would see nurses assessing patients with sore throats, ordering rapid strep antigen tests where necessary, and discharging patients from the emergency department when test results are negative.