To explore district nurses and general practitioners (GPs) interaction in a case seminar when discussing nutritional care for patients in palliative phases cared for at home and to construct a theoretical model illuminating the professionals’ main concern.

Nutritional care for people who are frail and older requires collaboration between nurses and physicians in primary health care. However, both collaboration and knowledge need to be improved, and there is a lack of continuing interprofessional education to meet these needs. We therefore developed an interprofessional educational intervention about nutritional care for patients in palliative phases of disease that was adapted to primary home health care and ended with a case seminar. The case seminar discussions gave us the opportunity to study micro-level interactions between district nurses and GPs in a learning context.

Grounded theory method was used to construct a theoretical model of the interactions between district nurses and GPs as they discussed an authentic case.

A substantive grounded theory that illuminates how district nurses and GPs interacted, negotiating responsibility for nutritional care for patients in palliative phases cared for at home. The theory is described in a tentative theoretical model that delineates factors that facilitate interprofessional dialogue and lead to interprofessional learning, or block such dialogue and learning. The theoretical model illuminates the importance of a distinction between uniprofessional and interprofessional dialogue in interprofessional educational interventions. It suggests that interprofessional learning was generated directly from the interaction between district nurses and GPs in the case seminar discussions. The model can be used to promote better teamwork and collaboration in caring; for example, as a basis for reflection in collaborative and interprofessional learning interventions and as a tool for facilitators and teachers.

The introduction of advanced practitioner roles has challenged the traditional boundaries of health care. While studies have been undertaken to understand the role of physicians in respect of mass-gathering medicine, the role of advanced nurse practitioners (ANPs) has not been investigated.

Does the presence of an ANP reduce the referral rates of patients presenting for medical care at mass-gathering events to external health care resources?

A prospective observational study was undertaken to determine whether the presence of an ANP would reduce the patient referral rate to external health care services by first aiders and paramedics working within an event medical team. Patients identified as requiring referral were reviewed by an ANP as part of the on-site medical provision for four mass-gathering events in the south of England. Additionally, information was gathered identifying which patients would have been transported to hospital by ambulance compared to those actually transported following ANP review. Statistical analysis was undertaken for three key measures (referrals to all local health resources, referrals to hospital-based acute services, and transfers to hospital by ambulance).

A rounded total of 842,000 people attended four mass-gathering events held over 14 days. Of these, 652 presented for medical care, many self-referring.

Using a one-tailed Fisher’s Exact Test and Phi analysis, this study demonstrated statistically significant reductions in the overall referral of patients to all external health care resources (P<.001; φ=0.44), to the emergency department (ED; P<.001; φ=0.43), and a reduction in ambulance transport (P<.001; φ=0.42). Effect size analysis demonstrated a medium-sized effect evident for all of the above, which was also demonstrated in economic terms.

The event medical team would have referred 105 (16.3%) of the 652 patient presentations to external health care services; 47 (7.2%) would have been transported by ambulance. In comparison, the ANP referred 23 patients (3.5%) with 11 (1.7%) being transported by ambulance. It also was noted that the first aiders and paramedics could be more selective in their referral habits that were focused primarily on the ED.

Appropriately trained and experienced ANPs working within event medical teams have a positive impact on referral rates from mass-gathering events.

KempAE . Mass-gathering Events: The Role of Advanced Nurse Practitioners in Reducing Referrals to Local Health Care Agencies. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2016;31(1):58–63.