Family Practice Nursing in Newfoundland and Labrador: Are Reported Roles Reflective of Professional Competencies for Registered Nurses in Primary Care?

Abstract

Background Family practice nurses are Registered Nurses who work collaboratively in primary care and deliver a range of services. Professional competency statements have been developed to describe the skills and knowledge of family practice nurses as a distinct field. Purpose We conducted a secondary analysis of qualitative interview data to examine how family practice nurse roles/activities relate to recently developed professional competencies. Methods Family physicians and family practice nurses in Newfoundland and Labrador (NL) participated in semi-structured interviews, during which they discussed roles/activities and scope of practice surrounding family practice nursing. For this secondary analysis, we used competency statements to inform thematic coding of the transcribed interviews. Results For the initial study, a total of 8 participants (5 family practice nurses; 3 family physicians) were interviewed from diverse practices. All transcripts from the original study (n = 8) were included in the secondary analysis and analysed across 47 competencies encompassing 6 domains (Professionalism; Clinical Practice; Communication; Collaboration and Partnership; Quality Assurance, Evaluation and Research; Leadership). Roles/activities reported by participants were reflective of the competencies, but with substantial variation in expression. Conclusions Family practice nursing competency statements reflect the actual activities of family practice nurses in NL. The professional competencies can serve as a framework to examine contributions of family practice nurses and identify areas warranting further training. The use of competencies to explore family practice nurses’ roles and activities can assist with optimizing scope of practice.

Nursing contributions to virtual models of care in primary care: a scoping review protocol

“…Primary care practices have relied heavily on virtual care during the pandemic to maintain the delivery of routine healthcare services (eg, chronic disease management, sexual healthcare, screening, patient education) while minimising risks of infection to clinicians and patients. 6 7 There were, however, routine services that may have required an in-person physical assessment (eg, high-risk prenatal care, cervical screening interventions) and were encouraged to be assessed for appropriateness prior to using virtual care. 8 In the province of Ontario, Canada, between 2019 and 2020, virtual visits in primary care increased from 1.2% to 71.1% across a 7-month period (based on physician billing data).…”