[A prospective study of programmed nursing consultation in an urban health center]

A study of the programmed nurse clinic in a health center was carried out to evaluate its different health care activities, the time consumed in them, the type of patients cared for, and the mechanism of organization of the clinic. A remarkable finding was a high number of daily appointments (11.8 persons), with an excellent rate of compliance with the appointment (89.3%). It was found that most of the diseases cared for in the nurse clinic were those most commonly managed with a protocol design in primary care: hypertension (34.1%), diabetes (6.9%), hyperlipoproteinemia (9%) and obesity (12.8%). Other parameters were evaluated, such as mean time per visit, which was predominantly between five and ten minutes, or activities during the visits, with a clear predominance of the clinical protocols. There was a remarkably high efficiency of the nursing staff, with a low rate of referral to the medical clinic (6.9%). We conclude that nurse clinics play an important role in the health centers, as the only possible mechanism to guarantee the correct fulfillment of the different programs. This requires a definite constant physical space for a given minimal period of time of about 2 hours per day.