Renegotiating roles as part of developing collaborative practice: Australian nurses in general practice and cervical...

Area of Science:

• Nursing
• General Practice
• Healthcare Management

Background:

• Practice nurses are increasingly involved in specialized procedures like cervical screening.
• Developing effective service delivery models within multidisciplinary teams is essential for optimizing healthcare.
• Understanding the dynamics of interdisciplinary collaboration is key to successful role integration.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a new model for practice nurse service delivery within a general practice multidisciplinary team.
• To explore the impact of interdisciplinary collaboration on the evolving role of practice nurses.
• To identify barriers and facilitators to changing the practice nurse role in cervical screening.

Main Methods:

• Action research methodology.
• Reflective group method with recently credentialed cervical screeners.
• Qualitative analysis of identified themes.

Main Results:

• Poor interdisciplinary collaboration emerged as a significant barrier to role evolution for practice nurses.
• Key themes included role renegotiation, gendered patterns in cervical screening, and the influence of team dynamics on nurse retention.
• The study highlighted the need for better piloting of new healthcare initiatives.

Conclusions:

• Improved interdisciplinary collaboration is vital for successful integration and retention of practice nurses.
• Continuing professional development for practice managers can foster positive change.
• Addressing gendered patterns in cervical screening requires collaborative team approaches.