Nurses as practice change facilitators for healthy behaviors

Area of Science:

• Primary care
• Health services research
• Nursing practice

Background:

• Primary care practices face challenges in delivering effective health behavior services.
• Improving patient health behaviors is crucial for preventative care and chronic disease management.
• External expertise can facilitate practice change and protocol development.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of nurse consultants on health behavior service delivery in primary care.
• To describe the methods and lessons learned from implementing a nurse consultant intervention.
• To encourage the adoption of nurse consultants for quality improvement in healthcare.

Main Methods:

• A nurse consultant model was implemented in 20 primary care practices across two healthcare systems.
• Nurse consultants collaborated with clinicians and staff to develop practice-specific protocols for health behavior identification and intervention.
• The intervention focused on enhancing the delivery of health behavior services to patients.

Main Results:

• The nurse consultant intervention led to improvements in the delivery of health behavior services.
• Practice-specific protocols were successfully developed and implemented to address patient health behaviors.
• The study demonstrated a positive impact on the quality of care provided.

Conclusions:

• Nurse consultants are effective facilitators of practice change in primary care settings.
• Implementing nurse consultant roles can enhance the delivery of essential health behavior services.
• Healthcare organizations should consider utilizing nurse consultants to improve patient care quality and outcomes.