Training the primary health care nurse. The Baragwanath experience

The extended role of the nurse has received much attention recently. A training programme for nurses who are to provide primary health care is offered at Baragwanath Hospital, Johannesburg. This article describes the training of nurses who care for adult patients. Fifty-one nurses had successfully completed their training by January 1980, and four clinics for adult are now staffed by primary health care nurses and general practitioners. Between March 1977 and December 1979, 212,611 patients had been seen by these nurses. The implications of the new role of the nurse are discussed.