Australian practice nurses’ perceptions of their role and competency to provide nutrition care to patients living with chronic disease

Abstract

Nutrition is important in the management of chronic disease, and practice nurses in the Australian primary care setting are increasingly providing nutrition care to patients living with chronic disease. The aim of the present study was to investigate practice nurses' perceptions of their role and competency to provide nutrition care to patients living with chronic disease in Australia. Twenty practice nurses currently employed in general practice participated in an individual semi-structured telephone interview. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and thematically analysed. Practice nurses perceived themselves to be in a prime position to provide opportunistic nutrition care to patients. Participants perceived that the ideal role of a practice nurse is to advocate for nutrition and provide a basic level of nutrition care to patients; however, the interpretation of the term 'basic' varied between participants. Participants perceived that practice nurses are highly trusted and approachable, which they valued as important characteristics for the provision of nutrition care. Barriers to providing nutrition care included time constraints, lack of nutrition knowledge and lack of confidence. Participants were concerned about the availability and accessibility of nutrition education opportunities for practice nurses. The present study has demonstrated that practice nurses perceive themselves as having a significant role in the provision of nutrition care to patients with chronic disease in the Australian primary care setting. Further investigation of strategies to enhance the effectiveness of nutrition care provision by practice nurses is warranted.

Barriers and facilitators to healthy eating for nurses in the workplace: an integrative review

“…Of a total of five qualitative papers, three conducted interviews with nurses (Persson & Martensson , Aranda & McGreevy , Cass et al . ); one conducted interviews and observations at facilities (Faugier et al . ) and one used interviews and focus groups (Phiri et al .…”

Dietary fibre and the prevention of chronic disease – should health professionals be doing more to raise awareness?

“…Negative patient attitudes towards diet were considered disincentives to offering dietary advice (Cass et al . ).…”

The nursing contribution to nutritional care in cancer cachexia

“…The review found that nurses recognise the importance of nutritional care in preventing and managing disease (21,22) and acknowledge that nutritional care is an important part of their role (23)(24)(25) . However, studies have consistently found obstacles to the delivery of nutritional care by nurses, which include: (i) lack of knowledge, (ii) lack of clarity regarding the nursing role in nutritional care and (iii) lack of confidence in the effectiveness of nutritional care interventions.…”

“…It has also been found amongst the hospital nurses in Turkey (22) and Australia (28) . Australian practice nurses believe that they have a low level of nutrition knowledge (21) . In contrast, care home staff in Wales drew on their personal knowledge of nutrition striving to provide personalised care in partnership with families and were found to assume that they had knowledge of what constitutes a healthy diet for older people.…”

“…Australian practice nurses have been shown to lack clarity in their nutritional care role (28) and to have differing opinions and understandings of basic nutritional advice (21) and optimal nutritional care process (25) . Similarly, a systematic review of nutritional care in stroke patients concluded that there is much variability in how such care is understood and what nurses do.…”