Aylett, Elizabeth, Fawcett, Tonks N · Nursing standard (Royal College of Nursing (Great Britain) : 1987) · 2003 · DOI
This article discusses what ME/CFS is and how nurses can help patients manage this exhausting illness. The authors argue that nurses are well-suited to be the main healthcare provider coordinating care for ME/CFS patients, because they can build strong relationships with patients and help them feel heard and supported.
This work addresses a critical gap in ME/CFS care—the need for coordinated, compassionate management and patient advocacy. For patients, it highlights the importance of having a dedicated healthcare professional who validates their experience and coordinates their care. For healthcare systems, it suggests an evidence-based model for improving patient outcomes through nursing-led care coordination.
This paper does not provide empirical evidence that nurse-led care actually improves patient outcomes in ME/CFS. It does not test specific interventions or compare different care models. It presents a conceptual proposal rather than demonstrating causality between nursing coordination and improved health outcomes.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Aylett, Elizabeth & Fawcett, Tonks N (2003). Chronic fatigue syndrome: the nurse's role.. Nursing standard (Royal College of Nursing (Great Britain) : 1987). https://doi.org/10.7748/ns2003.05.17.35.33.c3390
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-aylett-2003-chronic-fatigue,
author = {Aylett, Elizabeth and Fawcett, Tonks N},
title = {Chronic fatigue syndrome: the nurse's role.},
journal = {Nursing standard (Royal College of Nursing (Great Britain) : 1987)},
year = {2003},
doi = {10.7748/ns2003.05.17.35.33.c3390},
note = {PubMed: 12772385},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/aylett-2003-chronic-fatigue},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-27. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/aylett-2003-chronic-fatigue
Contribute
Private, reviewed by a human. Not a public comment thread.