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The Research Potential of Practice Nurses
What contribution to primary health care research?
Julie J Yallop
NZ and Australian National HAT, Auckland District Health Board, New Zealand; Dept of Epidemiology & Preventive Medicine, Monash University, VIC; School of Nursing, University of Western Sydney, NSW
Brian R McAvoy
Community and Home Detox Service, Auckland Community Alcohol and Drug Service; Hon/Adj Professor of General Practice, University of Auckland, New Zealand; Monash University, Melbourne VIC; University of Western Sydney, NSW
Abstract
Primary health care (PHC) is at the core of effective, sustainable population healthcare. Although PHC research has been described as 'the missing link in the development of high-quality, evidence-based health care for populations, research outputs have been disappointingly low in Australia and overseas.
This paper reviews the current status of PHC research in Australia, particularly relating to funding and research capacity building needed to conduct high quality and relevant research with significant transfer potential for practice and policy. It explores the likely contribution of research-trained practice nurses (R-T PNs) as study coordinators, rather than as independent nurse researchers, although this is certainly possible, and proposes adapting a successful secondary care research model for use in the PHC research setting.
Keywords
practice nurse, primary health care, research-trained practice nurses, chronic disease management, primary health care research capacity
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