[Nurse’s activities for patients with chronic diseases in primary care : a systematic review]

Introduction : in collaboration with family physician, primary care nurses can play a key role for persons with chronic diseases (CD). However, these activities vary from one practice to another. Context : the absence of evidence hinders our understanding of the issues related to the improvement of nursing practices in primary care organizations. Objective : to describe the primary care nurse’s activities for persons with CD and elements influencing those activities. Design : systematic literature review. Method : MEDLINE, CINHAL and SCOPUS electronic databases were reviewed. Key words : « primary health care », « primary nursing » and « chronic disease ». Results : eighteen studies were included in the review. Nurses activities can be clustered in four domain of activities : 1) Global assessment of the person with CD, 2) Care management, 3) Health Promotion and 4) Nurse-Physician Collaboration. Elements influencing nurses’ activities can be related to the setting of care, to nurse or to the person with CD. Discussion : nurses’ activities in primary care are understudied. Activities such as case management and interprofessional collaboration are lacking. Conclusion : descriptive studies are needed to describe in-depth nurses’ activities in primary settings for persons with CD.