Missed care or missed opportunities in general practice nursing

Background

Research into missed care has been conducted in various acute and some community healthcare settings; however, the experiences of general practice nurses (GPNs) are poorly represented in the literature.

Aim

To explore the role of the GPN and whether care activities are missed.

Methods

A qualitative descriptive design was used, employing semistructured interviews with 10 participants. The participants were GPNs working in a metropolitan or regional general practice in Australia, with a minimum of three years of experience in the role. A six-step process for thematic analysis was utilised for the extraction and presentation of findings.

Findings

GPNs rarely miss care; it is either delayed or rescheduled. Findings illustrate missed opportunities to provide care and enhance the role of the GPN. Factors contributing to missed opportunity are as follows: (i) difficulties navigating the GPN–general practitioner (GP) relationship, (ii) GPNs lack ongoing education commensurate with their scope of practice, (iii) Medicare policy fails to fund the GPN role, (iv) a rise in the number of salaried GPs leads to time pressures that limit the GPN role, (v) scope of practice constrained by time deficits, and (vi) communication problems within a siloed healthcare system limit GPN scope of practice.

Discussion

The initial aim was to identify missed care; however, findings suggest that GPNs rarely miss care, but they do miss opportunities to provide care and practice to their full scope.

Conclusion

Internal and external factors specific to the general practice context can contribute to missed opportunities for the work of the GPN.