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Do Australian general practitioners believe practice nurses can take a role in chlamydia testing? A qualitative study of attitudes and opinions
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: Chlamydia notifications continue to rise in young people in many countries and regular chlamydia testing is an important prevention strategy. Although there have been initiatives to increase testing in primary care, none have specifically investigated the role of practice nurses (PNs) in maximising testing rates. PNs have previously expressed a willingness to be involved, but noted lack of support from general practitioners (GPs) as a barrier. We sought GPs' attitudes and opinions on PNs taking an expanded role in chlamydia testing and partner notification. METHODS: In the context of a cluster randomised trial in mostly rural towns in 4 Australian states, semi structured interviews were conducted with 44 GPs between March 2011 and July 2012. Data relating to PN involvement in chlamydia testing were thematically analysed using a conventional content analysis approach. RESULTS: The majority of GPs interviewed felt that a role for PNs in chlamydia testing was appropriate. GPs felt that PNs had more time for patient education and advice, that patients would find PNs easier to talk to and less intimidating than GPs, and that GPs themselves could benefit through a reduction in their workload. Although GPs felt that PNs could be utilised more effectively for preventative health activities such as chlamydia testing, many raised concerns about how these activities would be renumerated whilst some felt that existing workload pressures for PNs could make it difficult for them to expand their role. Whilst some rural GPs recognised that PNs might be well placed to conduct partner notification, they also recognised that issues of patient privacy and confidentiality related to living in a "small town" was also a concern. CONCLUSION: This is the first qualitative study to explore GPs' views around an increased role for PNs in chlamydia testing. Despite the concerns raised by PNs, these findings suggest that GPs support the concept and recognise that PNs are suited to the role. However issues raised, such as funding and remuneration may act as barriers that will need to be addressed before PNs are supported to make a contribution to increasing chlamydia testing rates in general practice.
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Health workers indicated that to deliver services effectively they would need support, including training, data management tools, funding, more staff time, and supportive policies.
“Health workers also indicated that to deliver services effectively they would need support, including training, data management tools, funding, more staff time allocated to complete certain tasks, and supportive policies (124, 127, 132-139).”
From Updated recommendations for the treatment of Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Chlamydia trachomatis, and Treponema pallidum (syphilis) and new recommendations on syphilis testing and partner services (2024) · cites this paper as [139]
The Results sections on education and training, workload and time pressures, and funding and remuneration report that GPs saw training, nurse time and funding as important to expanding practice nurses’ chlamydia-testing role. The Discussion also considers a more flexible funding model, but the passages do not identify data-management tools as needed support; the paper’s findings are specifically about chlamydia care in Australian general practice. (LLM, conf=0.88)
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Metadata
- Authors
- on behalf of the ACCEPt consortium, Lorch, R., Hocking, J., Guy, R., Vaisey, A., Wood, A., Donovan, B., Fairley, C., Gunn, J., Kaldor, J., & Temple-Smith, M.
- Affiliations
- UNSW Sydney (AU)
- The University of Melbourne (AU)
- Sydney Hospital (AU)
- Melbourne Sexual Health Centre (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Lorch, Rebecca
- ORCID
- Venue
- BMC Infectious Diseases
- Published
- 2015-01-31
- Volume
- 15
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 31-31
- ISSN
- 1471-2334 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4314754
- OpenAlex
- W2028701227
- Cited by
- 9
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2023: 2 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 2 · 2015: 1
- FWCI
- 3.66
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- BMC Infectious Diseases (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UNSWorks (University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- UNSWorks (UNSW Sydney) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Minerva Access (University of Melbourne) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Nursing Roles and Practices
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Interprofessional Education and Collaboration
- Life Sciences › Immunology and Microbiology › Microbiology › Reproductive tract infections research
- Keywords
- chlamydia testing, practice nurses, general practitioners, GP attitudes, nursing role expansion, partner notification, rural primary care, remuneration, workload, patient privacy, confidentiality, sexually transmitted infections, youth
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Attitude of Health Personnel, Australia, Chlamydia Infections, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Nurse Practitioners, Primary Health Care, Rural Health, Contact Tracing, Nurse's Role, Qualitative Research, General Practitioners, General Practice
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