[Opinion of users about an ambulatory care center in a rural area]

The opinion of the users of a nurse clinic from a rural Health Center was evaluated to assess their acceptance or rejection. To this end, a survey with an interview at home was carried out of 80 of the 180 patients included in one or more of the protocols of hypertension, diabetes mellitus or obesity from that clinic. A high percentage of these patients (74%) stated that they were satisfied with the development of this service and that they were ready to continue their follow up with that system. The most commonly quoted motives were the existence of previous appointment (20.5%) and the subjective feeling of improved quality of life (27.4%). As regards their opinions about the motives for the creation of a nurse clinic, the responses were divided into two similar groups: one thought that they attempted to improve the control of chronic patients (39.7%) while the other supposed that it was only a measure to reduce the massification of medical clinics (34.3%).