Factors driving change
The factors motivating the extension in nursing roles are many and
complex. In common with other developed countries, the NHS in
England faces rising demand for health care, pressure to constrain
costs, poor access to services in deprived urban areas, and medical
workforce shortages. A common response to such challenges has
been to extend the role of nurses into areas that were previously
the domain of doctors alone. The expectation is that nurses can:
• enhance the quality of services provided by doctors;
• substitute for doctors in many areas, thus reducing demand for
doctors; and
• reduce costs, as they are cheaper to employ than doctors.
In primary care, the biggest stimulus for change was brought
about by the 1990 GP contract, which paid doctors to provide
chronic disease clinics and to meet population target rates for
vaccinations and cervical screening. GPs responded by employing
nurses to provide these services.4 The larger practices were better
able to find the money and other resources needed to extend
nursing roles, and those practices which enhanced their skill mix
in this way were best able to meet the new performance targets.5-7
Thus, economies of scale accelerated the growth in multidisciplinary
team size and complexity.
This momentum is likely to be sustained and enhanced by the
most recent GP contract of 2004. The contract is centred on the
practice, not the individual GP, and a substantial proportion of the
payment is linked to the attainment of quality of care targets for a
range of common clinical conditions. This will provide a further
impetus to the substitution of doctors by nurses in the management
of minor illness, and the expansion of specialist roles for
nurses, particularly in the management of chronic conditions, such
as asthma, diabetes and heart disease.
Factors driving change
The factors motivating the extension in nursing roles are many and
complex. In common with other developed countries, the NHS in
England faces rising demand for health care, pressure to constrain
costs, poor access to services in deprived urban areas, and medical
workforce shortages. A common response to such challenges has
been to extend the role of nurses into areas that were previously
the domain of doctors alone. The expectation is that nurses can:
• enhance the quality of services provided by doctors;
• substitute for doctors in many areas, thus reducing demand for
doctors; and
• reduce costs, as they are cheaper to employ than doctors.
In primary care, the biggest stimulus for change was brought
about by the 1990 GP contract, which paid doctors to provide
chronic disease clinics and to meet population target rates for
vaccinations and cervical screening. GPs responded by employing
nurses to provide these services.4 The larger practices were better
able to find the money and other resources needed to extend
nursing roles, and those practices which enhanced their skill mix
in this way were best able to meet the new performance targets.5-7
Thus, economies of scale accelerated the growth in multidisciplinary
team size and complexity.
This momentum is likely to be sustained and enhanced by the
most recent GP contract of 2004. The contract is centred on the
practice, not the individual GP, and a substantial proportion of the
payment is linked to the attainment of quality of care targets for a
range of common clinical conditions. This will provide a further
impetus to the substitution of doctors by nurses in the management
of minor illness, and the expansion of specialist roles for
nurses, particularly in the management of chronic conditions, such
as asthma, diabetes and heart disease.
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