Integrated nursing in primary care and analysis of nurses' caseloads

Over the past two decades both government and professional bodies have continually emphasized the need for an integrated approach to nursing. In reality, however, a review of the literature provides little evidence to suggest that this has been achieved. What it does show, in fact, are the complexities involved in the establishment of such an approach. This study was designed to develop an integrated nursing team within Collingham Medical Centre and to describe a methodology, which could be replicated by other teams. Studies have described the benefits and pitfalls of this integrated working but this is the first description of its implementation.