Although considerable attention has been paid to the use of quantitative methods in health research, there has been limited focus on decentralisation research using a qualitative-driven mixed method design. Decentralisation presents both a problematic concept and methodological challenges, and is more context-specific and is often multi-dimensional. Researchers often consider using more than one method design when researching phenomena is complex in nature.

To explore the effects of decentralisation on the provision of primary healthcare services.

Qualitative-driven mixed method design, employing three methods of data collections: focus group discussions (FGDs), semi-structured interviews (SSIs) and participant observations under two components, that is, core component and supplementary components were used. Four FGDs with health service practitioners, three FGDs with district stakeholders, 20 SSIs with health service users and 20 SSIs with national stakeholders were carried out. These were conducted sequentially. NVivo10, a data management program, was utilised to code the field data, employing a content analysis method for searching the underlying themes or concepts in the text material.

Both positive and negative experiences related to access, quality, planning, supplies, coordination and supervision were identified.

This study suggests some evidence of the effects of decentralisation on health outcomes in general, as well as filling a gap of understanding and examining healthcare through a qualitative-driven mixed methods approach, in particular. Future research in the area of qualitative in-depth understanding of the problems (why decentralisation, why now and what for) would provoke an important data set that benefits the researchers and policy-makers for planning and implementing effective health services.

The aim of this paper is to examine Canadian key informants’ perceptions of intrapersonal (within an individual) and interpersonal (among individuals) factors that influence successful primary care and public health collaboration.

Primary health care systems can be strengthened by building stronger collaborations between primary care and public health. Although there is literature that explores interpersonal factors that can influence successful inter-organizational collaborations, a few of them have specifically explored primary care and public health collaboration. Furthermore, no papers were found that considered factors at the intrapersonal level. This paper aims to explore these gaps in a Canadian context.

This interpretative descriptive study involved key informants (service providers, managers, directors, and policy makers) who participated in one h telephone interviews to explore their perceptions of influences on successful primary care and public health collaboration. Transcripts were analyzed using NVivo 9.

A total of 74 participants [from the provinces of British Columbia (n=20); Ontario (n=19); Nova Scotia (n=21), and representatives from other provinces or national organizations (n=14)] participated. Five interpersonal factors were found that influenced public health and primary care collaborations including: (1) trusting and inclusive relationships; (2) shared values, beliefs and attitudes; (3) role clarity; (4) effective communication; and (5) decision processes. There were two influencing factors found at the intrapersonal level: (1) personal qualities, skills and knowledge; and (2) personal values, beliefs, and attitudes. A few differences were found across the three core provinces involved. There were several complex interactions identified among all inter and intra personal influencing factors: One key factor – effective communication – interacted with all of them. Results support and extend our understanding of what influences successful primary care and public health collaboration at these levels and are important considerations in building and sustaining primary care and public health collaborations.

The aim of this study was to explore the role and activities of the school nursing service in sexual health within a large inner London borough.

School nurses (SNs) are specialist community public health nurses working with the school age population to promote their health and well-being and therefore are arguably in a prime position to promote the sexual health of children and young people. This is particularly pertinent in inner city boroughs where the rates of sexually transmitted infections and under-18 conceptions are a significant problem.

Following a review of the literature, a mixed methods study was undertaken which included an audit of documentary data to identify the referrals received in relation to sexual health and also included questionnaire surveys of school staff and SNs on their views of the role of the SN in sexual health.

SNs and school staff identified that SNs have a role in sexual health, which was reflected in the referrals received during the audit of documentary data. There appeared to be inconsistencies across the service and evidence suggested that the school nursing service may be underutilised in comparison to the number of students who require sexual health support. The current service appears to be predominantly reactive, particularly for males and those less than 12 years old. However, both SNs and school staff would like to see a more preventative approach; including greater sexual health promotion, condom distribution and school health clinics.

This study explored the partnership between universities and local primary schools to deliver a classroom-based paediatric communication impairment service provided by undergraduate speech pathology students. It aimed to understand how partnerships work to facilitate programme replication.

The partners included universities sending students on rural clinical placement, local host academic units and primary schools who worked together to provide paediatric speech and language services in primary schools in three sites in Australia. Rural and remote communities experience poorer health outcomes because of chronic workforce shortages, social disadvantage and high Aboriginality, poor access to services and underfunding.

The study was in twofold: qualitative analysis of data from interviews/focus group with the partners in the university and education sectors, and quantitative social network analysis of data from an electronic survey of the partners.

Factors supporting partnerships were long-term, work and social relationships, commitment to community, trust and an appetite for risk-taking. We postulate that these characteristics are more likely to exist in rural communities.

Encounters play an important role in the relationship between healthcare personnel and the close relatives of people with a long-term illness.

The aim of this study was to elucidate the meanings of encounters for close relatives of people with a long-term illness within a primary healthcare setting.

Interviews using a narrative approach were conducted with seven women and three men, and the phenomenological hermeneutic method was used to interpret the interview texts.

The structural analysis revealed three major themes: being confirmed as a family, being informed of the care, and being respected as a valuable person. Close relatives stated that they wanted to be confirmed as a family and have a familiar and trusting relationship with healthcare personnel. They valued being informed concerning the care of the ill person so that they could give support at home. It was also important to be compassionately viewed as an important person in a welcoming atmosphere based on respect and dignity.

To explore the experiences and challenges for residential care home staff when managing the healthcare needs of their residents, in particular those living with dementia.

Increasing number of older people, with complex health and social care needs are living in residential care homes. Yet there is limited appreciation of why staff sometimes struggle to manage residents’ healthcare needs, or understanding of their working relationship with district nurses (DNs), whose responsibility it is to provide nursing support.

This PhD study, in a metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, was conducted by an experienced DN and involved three phases. This paper focuses on the first two phases. Phase 1 data included: semi-structured interviews (n=8), reflective field notes based on non-participant observation, documentary analysis of policies, procedures and assessment tools and other contextual data from one care home (case study site). The practitioner researcher reflected on the findings from the case study, in relation to her own knowledge and experience as a DN, focusing in particular on findings that were familiar, or which surprised. In Phase 2 she fed these findings back to other care homes (n=11) to check whether the findings from the single case study were unique or resonated with others. She gathered their feedback through semi-structured interviews with senior care staff (n=14). Data were analysed using thematic data analysis.

Findings highlight the complexity facing residential care homes: high levels of healthcare needs amongst residents, the demands of caring for residents living with dementia, variations in the knowledge and skill set of care staff, inequity in the level of healthcare support, the challenges of building a good relationship with DNs, and funding pressures facing care homes.

Any, or all of these factors can prevent care home staff from managing the healthcare needs of their residents.

Integrated multidisciplinary primary healthcare is still in a relatively early stage of development in Ireland, with significant restructuring occurring in the past decade. Musculoskeletal physiotherapy services traditionally provided in acute hospital settings have been relocated into the primary care setting where the physiotherapist works as part of the multidisciplinary team. This study aimed to explore physiotherapy managers’ experiences of managing musculoskeletal physiotherapy services in primary care to gain an insight into the opportunities and challenges in service delivery, changing roles and ongoing professional development needs of staff.

Qualitative design using semi-structured interviews with primary care physiotherapy managers in the Republic of Ireland was employed.

Five interviews took in a mix of rural and urban areas nationally. The relationship with the GP was an important one in musculoskeletal physiotherapy services in primary care. Physiotherapists were well skilled but opportunities for professional and career development were restricted. Methods of optimising resources in the face of staffing restrictions were identified. Whilst there were many examples of innovations in service delivery, various barriers negatively impacted on optimal service including resource constraints and national strategy.

A number of factors that impact on musculoskeletal service delivery in primary care from the perspective of physiotherapy managers were identified in this study. Future research should explore the views of other stakeholders to provide a more thorough understanding of the relevant issues affecting musculoskeletal physiotherapy service provision in primary care in Ireland.

To identify the reasons why patients with minor complaints choose emergency departments (EDs) as a first contact of care and whether dissatisfaction with primary care services influences their decisions.

In this study, a self-completed survey called EUROPEP was given to 535 outpatients who were admitted to the XXXXX Hospital in Bursa and examined in the green zone in July 2015. Patients were asked about their complaints and why they preferred EDs as a first contact of care.

EDs were the first contact of care in 87.8% of cases. In all, 9% of patients registered to family physicians who were working outside the city of Bursa. There was no relationship between patient satisfaction and the number of previous visits to EDs in last 12 months (P=0.09). The main reasons for admitting to the emergency services were feeling excessive pain (20.4%), perception of urgency (14.5%) and that the family doctor services were closed outside working hours (13.2%). The mean patient satisfaction with family practice offices was calculated to be 68.1%.

The frequency of admission to EDs as a first contact of care was extremely high in the absence of a referral system. Patients who did not have family doctors in the settlement where they live put an extra burden on the EDs. Overall, patient satisfaction with their GPs did not influence the number of visits to EDs but accessibility remains a big challenge.

The health sector has always relied on technologies. According to World Health Organization, they form the backbone of the services to prevent, diagnose, and treat illness and disease. It is increasingly viewed as the most promising tool for improving the overall quality, safety and efficiency of the health delivery system.

This was to assess the current situation of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in primary healthcare in the terms of describing and classifying the existing work, identify gaps and exploring the personal experiences and the challenges of ICTs application in the primary healthcare.

A mixed research method in the form of sequential explanatory design was applied. In the quantitative phase a cross-sectional study was conducted among 172 family physicians using a predesigned questionnaire. Followed by qualitative data collection among 35 participants through focused group discussions.

Nearly half of the physicians have ICTs in their work and they were trained on it. None of them developed a community-based research using ICTs technology. Training on ICTs showed a statistically significant difference regarding the availability and the type of ICTs present in the workplace (P<0.05). Focused group discussion revealed that the majority of the participants believe that there is poor commitment of policymaker toward ICTs utilization in the primary care. Nearly 97% thinks that there is insufficient budget allocated for ICTs utilization in the workplace. Almost 88% of the participants demanded more incentives for ICTs users than non-user at the workplace.

ICTs resources are underutilized by health information professionals. Lack of funds, risk of instability of the electric supply and lack of incentives for ICTs users were the most common barriers to ICTs implementation thus a steady steps toward budget allocation and continuous training is needed.

To explore how e-cigarettes are perceived by a group of e-cigarette users and a group of Stop Smoking Advisors (SSAs), what are the risks and benefits they associate with e-cigarettes and how do these understandings shape participants’ attitude towards e-cigarettes?

Face-to-face and phone interviews were conducted with 15 e-cigarette users and 13 SSAs in South East England between 2014 and 2015. Transcribed data were analysed inductively through thematic analysis.

E-cigarettes were used as a therapeutic aid to stop or cut down smoking and as a smoking substitute. A prominent theme is the uncertainty e-cigarettes have generated. This included ambiguity of e-cigarettes’ status and efficacy, and ambiguity of e-cigarettes’ physical and social risks. Different attitudes towards e-cigarettes were identified.

E-cigarettes’ benefits and risks should be continuously evaluated, put into perspective and circulated to avoid ambiguity. Stop smoking services need to recognise the benefits that can be gained by using e-cigarettes as a harm reduction tool.

To explore, for the first time, whether a modified mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) course has the potential to reduce stress and burnout among National Health Service (NHS) General Practitioners.

There is a crisis of low morale among NHS GPs, with most describing their workload as ‘unmanageable’. MBCT has been demonstrated to improve stress and burnout in other populations, but has not yet been evaluated in a cohort of NHS GPs.

NHS GPs in South East England (n=22) attended a modified version of the MBCT course approved by National Institute for Health and Care Excellence for prevention of depressive relapse. This comprised eight weekly 2-h sessions with homework (mindfulness practice) between sessions. Participants completed the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) before (baseline) and then again one month (T2) and three months (T3) after attending the course. We also obtained qualitative data on participants’ experiences of the course.

Compliance with the intervention was very high. All GPs attended at least six sessions and all completed baseline questionnaires. At T2, data were obtained from 21 participants (95%); PSS scores were significantly lower than at baseline (P<0.001), as were MBI emotional exhaustion (P<0.001) and depersonalization scores (P=0.0421). At T3 we obtained data for 13 participants (59%); PSS scores and MBI emotional exhaustion scores were significantly lower (P<0.001; P=0.0024, respectively) and personal accomplishment scores were significantly higher (P<0.001) than at baseline. Participants reported that the course helped them to manage work pressures, feel more relaxed, enjoy their work and experience greater empathy and compassion (for self, colleagues and patients). Findings of this preliminary evaluation are promising. Further research is needed to evaluate this approach within a larger randomized-controlled trial.

Aim of the present study was to assess the knowledge of the potential role of nurses in the primary care setting and to analyse the attitudes towards their utilization by nurses and General Practitioners (GPs) in a region of Italy.

Nowadays, in Italy, the role of the nurse in primary care is still under-recognized and most primary care medical offices are managed individually by a physician.

The study consists of a questionnaire-based cross-sectional survey carried out in Piedmont, Italy, between February and September 2015.

We included 105 participants, 57 nurses and 48 physicians. The presence of a nurse working together with the GP was defined as ‘useful’ by 54.4% of nurses (versus 60.4% of physicians), as ‘essential’ by 45.6% of nurses (versus 25.0% of physicians), as ‘marginal’ by no nurses (versus 14.6% of physicians) and as ‘unimportant’ by none (P=0.002). Thus, physicians seemed to be less favorable towards a full collaboration and power-sharing with nurses. Furthermore, GPs and nurses showed a different attitude towards the role of nurses in primary care: while nurses highlighted their clinical value, physicians tended rather to recognize them a ‘supportive’ role. Moreover, only 20.8% of the physicians interviewed stated that they worked with a nurse. At the multivariate analysis, the age class resulted to be a significant predictor of the perception that the presence of a nurse working with the GP is essential: participants >50 years had an OR of 0.03 (P=0.028). Although the primary care organization appears still largely based on a traditional physician-centric care model, the positive attitude of nurses and young GPs towards a more collaborative model of primary care might represent a promising starting point.

This study aimed to explore community pharmacists’ roles on screening for risk factors, providing safety information-related non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) to patients.

NSAIDs are widely dispensed without a prescription from pharmacies in Thailand, while they are frequently reported as causing adverse events.

Self-administered questionnaires were distributed to all accredited pharmacies in Thailand, inviting the main pharmacist in each pharmacy to participate in this study.

Out of 406 questionnaires distributed, 159 were returned (39.2%). Almost all pharmacists claimed to engage in NSAID dispensing practice, but not all of them provided relevant good practice, such as, screening for risk factors (56.3–95.5%), communication on adverse drug reactions (ADRs) (36.9–63.2%) and ADR management (58.9–79.7%), history of gastrointestinal (GI) problems was frequently mentioned for screening, but many pharmacists did not screen for history of NSAID use (24.7–35.5%), older age (45.2–48.9%), concomitant drug (63.7%), and problems of cardiovascular (24.1%), renal (34.9–43.3%), and liver systems (60.3–61.0%). Male pharmacists were significantly less likely to inform users of non-selective NSAIDs about ADRs [odds ratio (OR) 0.44], while provision of information about selective NSAID ADRs was higher among pharmacy owners (OR 2.28), pharmacies with more pharmacists (OR 3.18), and lower in pharmacies with assistants (OR 0.41). Screening for risk factors, and risk communication about NSAIDs were not generally conducted in Thai accredited community pharmacists, nor were NSAID complications fully communicated. Promoting of community pharmacists’ roles in NSAID dispensing should give priority to improving, especially in high-risk patients for taking NSAIDs.

The Unified Health System (SUS) is the Brazilian set of public health services that offers global access to health care and disease treatments for all citizens. These services have been evaluated by means of a national survey assessing the users’ perceptions.

To explore and characterize the SUS users’ perceptions regarding primary dental team practices in the five Brazilian geographical regions.

Descriptive study. The sample consisted of 37 262 subjects. Data were collected by means of the Ministry of Health survey, conducted between 2012 and 2014. Variables used in the present study are associated with SUS users’ perspectives of satisfaction, access, and use of services. The study utilized bivariate data analysis, and dichotomous variables were derived for analysis following 95% reliability.

This study observed similarities and proportionality of perceptions in the Brazilian territory. In most macro-regions, dental teams did not develop an active search for dental treatment absentees. However, the SUS users reported very good and good perceptions, which were homogeneously distributed across five Brazilian regions, thereby showing an overall positive perception of primary dental treatment.