Featured Review: Nurses as substitutes for doctors in primary care

Delivery of primary healthcare services by nurses instead of doctors probably leads to similar or better patient health and higher patient satisfactionCurrent and anticipated problems such as ageing, increased prevalence of chronic conditions and multi-morbidity, increased emphasis on healthy lifestyle and prevention, and efforts to move care from hospitals to communities encourage countries worldwide to develop new models of primary care delivery. Interest in using nurses to expand the capacity of the primary care workforce to address these problems is increasing. The substitution of trained nurses (such as nurse practitioners, practice nurses, and registered nurses) for doctors is one strategy used to improve access, efficiency, and quality of care. Nurse tasks may include diagnostics, treatment, referral to other services, health promotion, management of chronic diseases, or management of acute problems needing same-day consultations. Gains in service efficiency may be achieved if doctors no longer provide the services they have delegated to nurses, enabling doctors to focus on complexity in their caseload and on utilising their role-specific  training and experience.A team of Cochrane authors based in Netherlands, Thailand, and the United Kingdom worked withCochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care to update the 2005Cochrane Review that investigated the impact of nurses working as substitutes for primary care doctors on: patient outcomes; processes of care; an...
Source: Cochrane News and Events - Category: Information Technology Authors: Source Type: news