Australian journal of primary health
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Chronic diseases require a multidisciplinary approach to provide patients with optimal care in general practice. This often involves general practitioners (GPs) referring their patients to allied health professionals (AHPs). The Team-link study explored the impact of an intervention to enhance working relationships between GPs and AHPs in general practice regarding the management of two chronic diseases: diabetes and ischaemic heart disease (IHD) or hypertension. ⋯ There were no changes in AHP measure. This study demonstrates that the instrument is sensitive to differences between providers and conditions and is sensitive to change over time following an intervention. There were few associations with the other measures suggesting that the MoML might assess other aspects of teamwork involving practitioners who are not collocated or in the same organisation.
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This article reports a qualitative study investigating patients' experiences of ongoing smoking or smoking cessation after hospitalisation for an acute coronary syndrome (myocardial infarction or unstable angina) and describes how study participants spoke about the role of their doctors in smoking cessation. We invited individuals who had been admitted to an Australian public hospital in 2005 with a discharge diagnosis of an acute cardiac syndrome and who were smokers at the time of their hospitalisation to participate. ⋯ Findings gave insight into the ways that cardiac patients perceive smoking cessation advice from their doctors, the perceived stigma of smoking and how lay understandings about smoking and smoking cessation emphasise the role of choice and individual responsibility. Our findings also indicate considerable scope for GPs and other doctors to offer better smoking cessation support to patients with established cardiovascular disease, particularly after a period of hospitalisation when the majority are highly motivated to stop smoking.
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Multicenter Study
Dementia: opportunities for risk reduction and early detection in general practice.
This project aimed to measure general practitioner (GP), practice nurse and patient health literacy about memory problems, dementia and its risk factors. Data were collected from general practices across Australia and a smaller sample in England. Questionnaires explored sources and adequacy of dementia knowledge and a randomised controlled trial tested the intervention of a dementia risk reduction pamphlet on patient knowledge of dementia risk reduction strategies. ⋯ The frequency of documentation of Mini-Mental State Examination and dementia diagnosis in computerised medical records of patients over 75 years was less than 0.01. These results demonstrate that many adult patients attending GPs have memory concerns, associate dementia with memory loss, and are receptive to information about dementia risk reduction. Most general practitioners and their nurses rate their dementia knowledge as inadequate with few testing for memory problems or discussing dementia with their patients.
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General practice is an ideal setting to be providing nutrition advice; however, it is important that the role of general practitioners (GPs) and practice nurses in providing nutrition advice is acknowledged and defined. This article aims to discuss the role of GPs and practice nurses in the delivery of nutrition advice. Ten general practitioners and 12 practice nurses from a NSW urban Division of General Practice participated in questionnaires and a Lifescripts implementation study, as well as their consenting patients receiving Lifescripts (n=13). ⋯ The provision of basic nutrition advice is acknowledged to be part of the role of GPs and practice nurses, as they are the first point of contact for patients, allowing them to raise nutrition awareness. However, it is important that this advice is evidence based and able to be delivered in a time-efficient manner. Increased nutrition education and the availability of appropriate resources and nutrition-related best practice guidelines will assist in this process.