Process evaluation of a practice nurse-led smoking cessation trial in Australian general practice: views of general practitioners and practice nurses

Abstract

The Quit with PN intervention was acceptable to participating PNs and GPs. Issues to be addressed in the planning and wider implementation of future trials of nurse-led intervention in general practice include providing ongoing mentoring support, integration into practice management systems and strategies to promote greater collaboration in GPs and PN teams in general practice. The ongoing feasibility of the intervention was impacted by the funding model supporting PN employment and the competing demands on the PNs time.

The feasibility and acceptability of nurse‐led chronic disease management interventions in primary care: An integrative review

“…Education provided in the smoking cessation studies by Halcomb, Furler, et al. () and Zwar et al. () was seen to enhance primary care nurses knowledge and confidence.…”

“…Commonly cited barriers to the intervention were associated with inadequate preparation of primary care nurses, lack of support, workload and funding (Beighton et al., ; Halcomb, Furler, et al., ; Hanley et al., ; Hegney et al., ; Verwey et al., ; Zwar et al., ). Variability was seen in the amount of preparatory education and ongoing support provided to nurses.…”

“…The challenge of integrating interventions into existing nursing practice in primary care was another key barrier identified across included studies (Beighton et al., ; Halcomb, Furler, et al., ; Hegney et al., ; Verwey et al., ; Zwar et al., ). For some primary care nurses, there was a struggle to find time to deliver the interventions in an already busy workload.…”

“…For some primary care nurses, there was a struggle to find time to deliver the interventions in an already busy workload. Additionally, time constraints were directly associated with funding in several studies, where the sustainability of interventions was questioned due to the lack of funding to remunerate primary care nurse activity (Beighton et al., ; Halcomb, Furler, et al., ; Hanley et al., ; Lock et al., ; Verwey et al., ).…”

“…While many of the interventions were supported by research funding, their sustainability is dependent on funding models to remunerate general practices for nurse time (Halcomb, Furler, et al., ; Zwar et al., ). The move in Australia away from item based funding to block funding is a step toward creating a model that allows primary care nurses to provide the type of nursing services that are required in primary care (Merrick et al., ).…”