The impact of funding models on the integration of registered nurses in primary health care teams: protocol for a multi-phase mixed-methods study in Canada

BACKGROUND

Family practice registered nurses co-managing patient care as healthcare professionals in interdisciplinary primary care teams have been shown to improve access, continuity of care, patient satisfaction, and clinical outcomes for patients with chronic diseases while being cost-effective. Currently, however, it is unclear how different funding models support or hinder the integration of family practice nurses into existing primary health care systems and interdisciplinary practices. This has resulted in the underutilisation of family practice nurses in contributing to high-quality patient care.

METHODS

This mixed-methods project is comprised of three studies: (1) a funding model analysis; (2) case studies; and (3) an online survey with family practice nurses. The funding model analysis will employ policy scans to identify, describe, and compare the various funding models used in Canada to integrate family practice nurses in primary care. Case studies involving qualitative interviews with clinic teams (family practice nurses, physicians, and administrators) and family practice nurse activity logs will explore the variation of nursing professional practice, training, skill set, and team functioning in British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Quebec. Interview transcripts will be analysed thematically and comparisons will be made across funding models. Activity log responses will be analysed to represent nurses' time spent on independent, dependent, interdependent, or non-nursing work in each funding model. Finally, a cross-sectional online survey of family practice nurses in Canada will examine the relationships between funding models, nursing professional practice, training, skill set, team functioning, and patient care co-management in primary care. We will employ bivariate tests and multivariable regression to examine these relationships in the survey results.

DISCUSSION

This project aims to address a gap in the literature on funding models for family practice nurses. In particular, findings will support provincial and territorial governments in structuring funding models that optimise the roles of family practice nurses while establishing evidence about the benefits of interdisciplinary team-based care. Overall, the findings may contribute to the integration and optimisation of family practice nursing within primary health care, to the benefit of patients, primary healthcare providers, and health care systems nationally.

Préfigurer l’exercice de la pratique infirmière avancée : une coconstruction à l’œuvre en milieu de soins

INTRODUCTION

Advanced nursing practice is the subject of a growing number of studies. To date, however, few of them have analyzed the local processes used to implement the functions of advanced practice nurses (APNs). The research presented in this article concerns a pilot project on the precursors of APNs (pre-APNs) in the French healthcare system.

PURPOSE OF THE RESEARCH

This article analyzes the major obstacles to and levers for the development of pre-APNs’ functions in the light of their active role in the implementation process.

RESULTS

The obstacles include confusion of the function of pre-APN with other nursing functions on the part of their colleagues and superiors, partial assimilation to the medical profession, restriction of the practice of pre-APN under the control of physicians in highly ambivalent interprofessional relationships. Physicians also played a leveraging role in interprofessional mentoring to promote the introduction of pre-APN. They adopted strategies for negotiating their competencies, providing information and raising awareness about their function while asserting a professional identity based on their competence as nurses expert in nursing care in their field of practice (the elderly, mental health and psychiatry, support for chronic or cancer patients, primary care).

CONCLUSION

The development of advanced nursing practice can only partially derive from formal structures and regulatory frameworks. The various initiatives to publicize, build and install these functions are illustrative of a process of co-construction in practice settings.

Challenges faced by Canadian primary health care nurse practitioners in chronic disease management: A qualitative study among key informants

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

The increasing prevalence of chronic diseases is driving health care systems to rethink their operations. Despite numerous studies supporting the advantages of primary health care nurse practitioners (PHCNPs) in chronic disease management, implementing practices that fully use the skills of these practitioners seems impeded in the Canadian province of Québec. This study explores the views of leaders involved in primary health care regarding the contributions PHCNPs can make in chronic disease management and the challenges they face in doing so.

METHODS

Through semistructured interviews, an exploratory descriptive qualitative study was conducted with 20 key informants across Québec who hold a variety of professional positions connected to PHCNPs.

CONCLUSIONS

Primary health care nurse practitioners were perceived to be able to improve self-management support for chronic diseases. In reality, however, PHCNPs are mainly devoting their time to clientele in acute care, and current regulations governing their practices limit their involvement in chronic disease management.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE

Integrating PHCNPs offers a unique opportunity for health care settings to redefine the roles of family physicians and registered nurses and to restructure practices toward a chronic disease-oriented system. A clinical manager should be designated to monitor this restructuring process and ensure its success.

Reorganising health and social care in Québec: a journey towards integrating care through mergers

Context

Two reforms (2014, 2015) characterised by the merger of public health care establishments profoundly shaped the current organisation of Quebec’s healthcare system. In 2015, 22 megastructures called Integrated Health and Social Services Centres/Integrated University Health and Social Services Centres (IHSSC/IUHSSC), were created and mandated to organise care delivery to their local populations.

Objective

To describe the service configuration of the 2015 healthcare system reforms, emphasising on how it shaped the organisation of primary health care (PHC) in Quebec.

Results

With the creation of IHSSCs/IUHSSCs, Quebec’s healthcare system passed from three to two levels of governance, leading to a centralisation of decision-making powers. Most health services are delivered by the new organisations, while most PHC is delivered by semi-private medical practices, mainly Family Medicine Groups (FMGs). The FMG model is the preferred strategy to develop interdisciplinary team-work and inter-organizational collaborations with other PHC services.

Conclusion

mechanisms through which centralised healthcare systems achieve community oriented integrated care (COIC) need to be properly understood in order to improve meaningful clinical outcomes. Mergers may not sufficiently achieve integration of services in all its dimensions. These reforms should be monitored and evaluated on their capacity to mobilise all providers as well as physicians to participate in COIC.

Role clarification processes for better integration of nurse practitioners into primary healthcare teams: a multiple-case study

Role clarity is a crucial issue for effective interprofessional collaboration. Poorly defined roles can become a source of conflict in clinical teams and reduce the effectiveness of care and services delivered to the population. Our objective in this paper is to outline processes for clarifying professional roles when a new role is introduced into clinical teams, that of the primary healthcare nurse practitioner (PHCNP). To support our empirical analysis we used the Canadian National Interprofessional Competency Framework, which defines the essential components for role clarification among professionals. A qualitative multiple-case study was conducted on six cases in which the PHCNP role was introduced into primary care teams. Data collection included 34 semistructured interviews with key informants involved in the implementation of the PHCNP role. Our results revealed that the best performing primary care teams were those that used a variety of organizational and individual strategies to carry out role clarification processes. From this study, we conclude that role clarification is both an organizational process to be developed and a competency that each member of the primary care team must mobilize to ensure effective interprofessional collaboration.

Priorities for action to improve cardiovascular preventive care of patients with multimorbid conditions in primary care--a participatory action research project

BACKGROUND

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention in patients with multimorbid conditions is not always optimal in primary care (PC). Interactive collaborative processes involving PC community are recommended to develop new models of care and to successfully reshape clinical practices.

OBJECTIVE

To identify challenges and priorities for action in PC to improve CVD prevention among patients with multimorbid conditions.

METHODS

Physicians (n = 6), nurses (n = 6), community pharmacists (n = 6), other health professionals (n = 6), patients (n = 6) and family members (n = 6), decision makers (n = 6) and researchers (n = 6) took part in a 1-day workshop. Using the Chronic Care Model (CCM) as a framework, participants in focus groups and nominal groups identified the challenges and priorities for action.

RESULTS

Providing appropriate support to lifestyle change in patients and implementing collaborative practices are challenging. Priorities for action relate to three CCM domains: (i) improve the clinical information system by providing computerized tools for interprofessional and interinstitutional communication, (ii) improve the organization of health care and delivery system design by enhancing interprofessional collaboration, especially with nurses and pharmacists, and creating care teams that include a case manager and (iii) improve self-management support by giving patients access to nutritionists, to personalized health care plans including lifestyle recommendations and to other resources (community resources, websites).

CONCLUSIONS

To optimize CVD prevention, PC actors recommend focussing mainly on three CCM domains. Electronic medical records, collaborative practices and self-management support are perceived as pivotal aspects of successful PC prevention programme. Developing and implementing such models are challenging and will require the mobilization of the whole PC community.