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Practice nurse chlamydia testing in Australian general practice: a qualitative study of benefits, barriers and facilitators

BACKGROUND: Chlamydia infection is a significant public health issue for young people; however, testing rates in Australian general practice are low. Practice nurses (PNs) could have an important role in contributing to increasing chlamydia testing rates. The Australian Chlamydia Control Effectivene...

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Autores principales: Lorch, Rebecca, Hocking, Jane, Guy, Rebecca, Vaisey, Alaina, Wood, Anna, Lewis, Dyani, Temple-Smith, Meredith
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4371842/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25880077
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12875-015-0251-8
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author Lorch, Rebecca
Hocking, Jane
Guy, Rebecca
Vaisey, Alaina
Wood, Anna
Lewis, Dyani
Temple-Smith, Meredith
author_facet Lorch, Rebecca
Hocking, Jane
Guy, Rebecca
Vaisey, Alaina
Wood, Anna
Lewis, Dyani
Temple-Smith, Meredith
author_sort Lorch, Rebecca
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Chlamydia infection is a significant public health issue for young people; however, testing rates in Australian general practice are low. Practice nurses (PNs) could have an important role in contributing to increasing chlamydia testing rates. The Australian Chlamydia Control Effectiveness Pilot (ACCEPt), a large cluster randomised control trial of annual testing for 16 to 29 year olds in general practice, is the first to investigate the role of PNs in maximising testing rates. In order to assess the scope for PN involvement, we aimed to explore PN’s views in relation to involvement in chlamydia testing in general practice. METHODS: Semi structured interviews were conducted between June 2011 and April 2012 with a purposive sample of 23 PNs participating in ACCEPt. Interview data was thematically analysed using a conventional content analysis approach. RESULTS: The participants in our study supported an increased role for PNs in chlamydia testing and identified a number of patient benefits from this involvement, such as an improved service with greater access to testing and patients feeling more comfortable engaging with a nurse rather than a doctor. An alleviation of doctors’ workloads and expansion of the nurse’s role were also identified as benefits at a clinic level. Time and workload constraints were commonly considered barriers to chlamydia testing, along with concerns around privacy in the “small town” rural settings of the general practices. Some felt negative GP attitudes as well as issues with funding for PNs’ work could also be barriers. The provision of training and education, streamlining chlamydia testing pathways in clinics and changes to pathology ordering processes would facilitate nurse involvement in chlamydia testing. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that PNs could take a role in increasing chlamydia testing in general practice and that their involvement may result in possible benefits for patients, doctors, PNs and the community. Strategies to overcome identified barriers and facilitate their involvement must be further explored.
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spelling pubmed-43718422015-03-25 Practice nurse chlamydia testing in Australian general practice: a qualitative study of benefits, barriers and facilitators Lorch, Rebecca Hocking, Jane Guy, Rebecca Vaisey, Alaina Wood, Anna Lewis, Dyani Temple-Smith, Meredith BMC Fam Pract Research Article BACKGROUND: Chlamydia infection is a significant public health issue for young people; however, testing rates in Australian general practice are low. Practice nurses (PNs) could have an important role in contributing to increasing chlamydia testing rates. The Australian Chlamydia Control Effectiveness Pilot (ACCEPt), a large cluster randomised control trial of annual testing for 16 to 29 year olds in general practice, is the first to investigate the role of PNs in maximising testing rates. In order to assess the scope for PN involvement, we aimed to explore PN’s views in relation to involvement in chlamydia testing in general practice. METHODS: Semi structured interviews were conducted between June 2011 and April 2012 with a purposive sample of 23 PNs participating in ACCEPt. Interview data was thematically analysed using a conventional content analysis approach. RESULTS: The participants in our study supported an increased role for PNs in chlamydia testing and identified a number of patient benefits from this involvement, such as an improved service with greater access to testing and patients feeling more comfortable engaging with a nurse rather than a doctor. An alleviation of doctors’ workloads and expansion of the nurse’s role were also identified as benefits at a clinic level. Time and workload constraints were commonly considered barriers to chlamydia testing, along with concerns around privacy in the “small town” rural settings of the general practices. Some felt negative GP attitudes as well as issues with funding for PNs’ work could also be barriers. The provision of training and education, streamlining chlamydia testing pathways in clinics and changes to pathology ordering processes would facilitate nurse involvement in chlamydia testing. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that PNs could take a role in increasing chlamydia testing in general practice and that their involvement may result in possible benefits for patients, doctors, PNs and the community. Strategies to overcome identified barriers and facilitate their involvement must be further explored. BioMed Central 2015-03-14 /pmc/articles/PMC4371842/ /pubmed/25880077 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12875-015-0251-8 Text en © Lorch et al.; licensee BioMed Central. 2015 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research Article
Lorch, Rebecca
Hocking, Jane
Guy, Rebecca
Vaisey, Alaina
Wood, Anna
Lewis, Dyani
Temple-Smith, Meredith
Practice nurse chlamydia testing in Australian general practice: a qualitative study of benefits, barriers and facilitators
title Practice nurse chlamydia testing in Australian general practice: a qualitative study of benefits, barriers and facilitators
title_full Practice nurse chlamydia testing in Australian general practice: a qualitative study of benefits, barriers and facilitators
title_fullStr Practice nurse chlamydia testing in Australian general practice: a qualitative study of benefits, barriers and facilitators
title_full_unstemmed Practice nurse chlamydia testing in Australian general practice: a qualitative study of benefits, barriers and facilitators
title_short Practice nurse chlamydia testing in Australian general practice: a qualitative study of benefits, barriers and facilitators
title_sort practice nurse chlamydia testing in australian general practice: a qualitative study of benefits, barriers and facilitators
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4371842/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25880077
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12875-015-0251-8
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