Overview
The overall objective of this observational study is to investigate practices of communication and decision-making during nurses' initial assessment of patients' health problems in primary care, examine working mechanisms in good practices and develop feasible solutions.
The specific aims are:
- To investigate patients' expectations and experiences with the communication and decision-making during their first contact with a registered nurse (RN) in primary care.
- To investigate patient-RN communication on the level of patient involvement.
- To investigate RNs' actual communication, assessments and decision-making, value conflicts and the challenges and strategies they use in prioritizing.
- To analyse the underlying working mechanisms of good communication practices.
- To develop methodologies for facilitating efficient processes in assessing, managing, and prioritizing patients in primary care for RNs.
Project PINPOINT aims for a prospective multicenter study, using various methods for data collection and analysis.
Eligibility
Inclusion Criteria:
- Registered Nurses at primary care centres and patients seeking primary care for a new health concern or a new episode of a problem
Exclusion Criteria:
- Patients visiting the primary care nurse with a chronic or continuous health problem