Background Research examining RNs’ experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic is lacking, thus inhibiting efforts to optimize nursing care delivery and patient outcomes during the current pandemic and future public health emergencies. Objective To explore the experience of being a registered nurse caring for patients with COVID-19 at an urban academic medical center during the early stages of the pandemic Design Qualitative descriptive study, guided by Donabedian's Quality Framework for Evaluation of Healthcare Delivery which focuses on structures, processes, and outcomes of care delivery Setting Urban academic medical center in the northeast United States Participants Registered nurses cared for or caring for patients with COVID-19, age ≥18 years old, and English-speaking Methods Participants were recruited for individual in-person semi-structured interviews. Interviews occurred during March and April 2020 and were recorded and transcribed. Transcripts were analyzed by two researchers using emergent qualitative content analysis to identify themes. Results Twenty-one registered nurses participated in the study. Three themes emerged from the data, included one relevant to structures and two relevant to processes of care during the pandemic. Registered nurses perceived the clinical context as highly dynamic, but quickly adapted to pandemic-related care delivery. They felt a “sense of duty” to care for patients with COVID-19, despite being fearful of acquiring or spreading infection. Compared to clinical colleagues, registered nurses reported increased patient exposure and performed tasks previously assigned to other clinical team members. Conclusion Roles and nursing practice processes evolved to meet the demand for care despite challenges. Registered nurses require adequate protection for their frontline role which may consist of increased patient exposure compared to clinical colleagues, emotional support, and clear clinical guidance. A deeper understanding of how a public health emergency, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, affects nursing practice can guide future efforts to optimize healthcare structures, nursing care processes, and patient outcomes. Our study can inform strategies for providing registered nurses with adequate communication, protection, and resources during the COVID-19 pandemic and future similar public health emergencies.

Objective The objective of this study was to explore nurses' experiences and perceptions at selected United States (U.S.) healthcare sites during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Background The COVID‐19 pandemic brought rapid changes to the healthcare community. While a few studies have examined the early pandemic experiences of nurses in China and Europe, nurses' experiences across the United States have remained relatively underexplored. Design A qualitative study design was used. Methods Using a constructivist grounded theory methodology and methods, we conducted eight focus groups across four hospital sites in the eastern, midwestern and western United States. Registered nurses with a minimum of six months' experience working in all clinical specialties were eligible. Forty‐three nurses participated. Data were analysed iteratively using the constant comparative method. The COREQ guidelines supported the work and reporting of this study. Results The nurses experiencing a pandemic (NEXPIC) grounded theory emerged positing associations between four interrelated themes: Challenges, Feelings, Coping and Ethics. Nurses reported Challenges associated with changes in the work environment, community and themselves. They expressed more negative than positive feelings. Nurses coped using self‐care techniques, and teamwork within the healthcare organisation. Moral dilemmas, moral uncertainty, moral distress, moral injury and moral outrage were ethical issues associated with nurses' Challenges during the pandemic. Moral courage was associated with positive Coping. Conclusions Awareness of frontline nurses' complex and interrelated needs may help healthcare organisations protect their human resources. This new theory provides preliminary theoretical support for future research and interventions to address the needs of frontline nurses. Relevance to clinical practice Nurses face added distress as frontline at‐risk caregivers. Interventions to promote nurses' ability to cope with personal and professional challenges from the pandemic and address ethical issues are needed to protect the nursing workforce. This study offers a new substantive theory that may be used to underpin future interventions.

Background Registered nurses are increasingly becoming embedded in primary care teams yet there is a wide variability in nursing roles and responsibilities across organizations. Policy makers are calling for a closer look at how to best utilize registered nurses in primary care teams. Lack of knowledge about effective primary care nursing roles and responsibilities challenges policy makers' abilities to develop recommendations to effectively deploy registered nurses in primary care needed to assure efficient, evidence-based, and quality health care. Objective To synthesize international evidence about primary care RN roles and responsibilities to make recommendations for maximizing the contributions of RNs in team-based primary care models. Design Systematic Review Data Sources The Meta-Analysis and Systematic Reviews of Observational Studies framework guided the conduct of this review. Five electronic databases (OVID Medline, CINAHL, EMBASE, PubMed and Cochrane Library) were searched using MeSH terms: primary care, roles, and responsibilities. The term "nurs*" was truncated to identify all literature relevant to nursing. Review Methods The initial search yielded 2,243. Abstracts and titles were screened for relevance and seventy-one full text reviews were completed by two researchers. Inclusion criteria included: 1) Registered nurses practicing in interprofessional teams; 2) Description of registered nursing roles and responsibilities; 3) Primary care setting. All eligible studies underwent quality appraisal using the Integrative Quality Criteria for Review of Multiple Study Designs tool. Results Eighteen studies met eligibility across six countries: Australia, United States, Spain, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa. Registered nurses play a large role in chronic disease management, patient education, medication management, and often can shift between clinical and administrative responsibilities. There are a limited number of registered nurses that participate in primary care policy making and research. Conclusion Integrating registered nurses into primary care has the potential to increase patient access to a primary care provider because registered nurses can supplement some of the provider workload: they renew prescriptions, address patient questions, and provide patient education. Clear practice protocols and nursing policy should be written by registered nurses to ensure safe, and effective nursing care. The use of a medical assistant or nurse’s aide to perform non-nursing tasks allows registered nurses to take on more complex patient care. Future research should expand on emerging payment models for nurse-specific tasks.

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PURPOSE Various models of care delivery have been investigated to meet the increasing demands in primary care. One proposed model is comanagement of patients by more than 1 primary care clinician. Comanagement has been investigated in acute care with surgical teams and in outpatient settings with primary care physicians and specialists. Because nurse practitioners are increasingly managing patient care as independent clinicians, our study objective was to propose a model of nurse practitioner-physician comanagement. METHODSWe conducted a literature search using the following key words: comanagement; primary care; nurse practitioner OR advanced practice nurse. From 156 studies, we extracted information about nurse practitioner-physician comanagement antecedents, attributes, and consequences. A systematic review of the findings helped determine effects of nurse practitioner-physician comanagement on patient care. Then, we performed 26 interviews with nurse practitioners and physicians to obtain their perspectives on nurse practitioner-physician comanagement. Results were compiled to create our conceptual nurse practitioner-physician comanagement model. RESULTSOur model of nurse practitioner-physician comanagement has 3 elements: effective communication; mutual respect and trust; and clinical alignment/ shared philosophy of care. Interviews indicated that successful comanagement can alleviate individual workload, prevent burnout, improve patient care quality, and lead to increased patient access to care. Legal and organizational barriers, however, inhibit the ability of nurse practitioners to practice autonomously or with equal care management resources as primary care physicians.CONCLUSIONS Future research should focus on developing instruments to measure and further assess nurse practitioner-physician comanagement in the primary care practice setting. Ann Fam Med 2018;16:250-256. https://doi.org/10.1370/afm.2230. INTRODUCTIONW ith imminent staffing shortages in the health care profession and an increase in the volume of patients seeking primary care services, patient loads are increasing rapidly, thus making it difficult for a single primary care professional to manage all patient care needs effectively and efficiently.1-4 Therefore, policy makers are calling for new primary care delivery models to meet the increased demands for care, especially due to patients with multiple comorbidities requiring more complex primary care visits. Different models of care delivery have been proposed, including team-based care, yet these models often have variability in task allocation and professional roles.5 Identifying innovative models of care delivery is increasingly important to meet these demands in primary care.One proposed care delivery model includes having more than 1 primary care professional comanaging the same patient and sharing the workload responsibilities or care management tasks. Researchers have explored comanagement of patients by 2 physicians in primary care, 6 and by a physician and a nonphysician ...

NPs can help meet the increasing demand for primary care by taking responsibilities as primary care providers, and organizations can assign NPs their own patient panels. Supporting NP independent practice within organizations promotes NP role as primary care providers. Policy and organizational change focused on promoting NP work environments so NPs can practice as primary care providers can be an effective strategy to increase the primary care capacity.

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NP practice environment affected the quality of care for 2 chronic conditions. Efforts should be implemented to improve NP practice environment to potentially improve care quality.