Surge capacity and practice management challenges of Canadian family physicians during COVID-19: a qualitative study.

Background: Planning for surge capacity, that is, the ability of a health service to expand beyond normal capacity and meet an increased demand for clinical care, is an essential component of public health emergency preparedness. During the COVID-19 pandemic, family physicians (FPs) were called upon to provide surge capacity in settings such as hospital units and emergency departments while also maintaining their primary care responsibilities. Most research reports on projection models, hospital settings, or the use of virtual care, with limited focus on the firsthand experiences of FPs in this role.

Perspectives of primary care nurses on the organization of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout: a qualitative study.

Background: Primary care nurses, including nurse practitioners (NPs), registered nurses (RNs), and licensed practical nurses/registered practical nurses (LPNs/RPNs), play a pivotal role in pandemic management and outbreak planning. There is extensive literature surrounding COVID-19 vaccination efforts in Canada; however, limited research addresses the involvement of primary care nurses, as well as the organization and integration of these efforts into primary care settings. This study aimed to describe the organizational challenges, barriers, and facilitators to primary care nurses' roles in COVID-19 vaccination.

Nurses' experiences with virtual care during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study in primary care.

Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, virtual care was used to deliver primary care services. Nurses contributed to primary care teams' capacity to deliver care virtually. This study explored nurses' roles in virtual care delivery in primary care and the barriers and facilitators that influenced their contributions.

Revealing administrative staff roles in primary care during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study of family physicians' perspectives.

Background: Administrative staff in primary care undertake numerous tasks to support patient care delivery. Although their roles are often overlooked, administrative staff are essential to the coordination and operations of primary care clinics. The COVID-19 pandemic introduced additional clinical and administrative tasks, including transitioning to virtual appointments and triaging patients for urgency, changing typical workflows.

A Qualitative Analysis of the Functions of Primary Care Nurses in COVID-19 Vaccination.

Aim: To describe vaccination roles of primary care nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada.

Design: This analysis was part of a larger mixed-methods case study.

Methods: We conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews from May 2022 to January 2023 with primary care nurses across four provinces: British Columbia, Ontario, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Nova Scotia.

Co-development of a national, bilingual, post-licensure accredited educational program for registered nurses in primary care: A knowledge-to-action exemplar.

Registered nurses' practice in primary care varies and is sometimes sub-optimal. To fill the gap in primary care-specific knowledge, we co-constructed a national educational program to reinforce the nursing workforce. We based our project on the knowledge-to-action approach.

System-Based Interventions to Address Physician Burnout: A Qualitative Study of Canadian Family Physicians' Experiences During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Background: Medical professionals experienced high rates of burnout and moral distress during the COVID-19 pandemic. In Canada, burnout has been linked to a growing number of family physicians (FPs) leaving the workforce, increasing the number of patients without access to a regular doctor. This study explores the different factors that impacted FPs' experience with burnout and moral distress during the pandemic, with the goal of identifying system-based interventions aimed at supporting FP well-being and improving retention.

Redeployment Among Primary Care Nurses During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Study.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, primary care nurses were often redeployed to areas outside of primary care to mitigate staffing shortages. Despite this, there is a scarcity of literature describing their perceptions of and experiences with redeployment during the pandemic. This paper aims to: 1) describe the perspectives of primary care nurses with respect to redeployment, 2) discuss the opportunities/challenges associated with redeployment of primary care nurses, and 3) examine the nature (e.

Adapting care provision in family practice during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study exploring the impact of primary care reforms in four Canadian regions.

Background: Over the past two decades, Canadian provinces and territories have introduced a series of primary care reforms in an attempt to improve access to and quality of primary care services, resulting in diverse organizational structures and practice models. We examine the impact of these reforms on family physicians' (FPs) ability to adapt their roles during the COVID-19 pandemic, including the provision of routine primary care.

Methods: As part of a larger case study, we conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with FPs in four Canadian regions: British Columbia, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and Ontario.

"Family doctors are also people": a qualitative analysis of how family physicians managed competing personal and professional responsibilities during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: Family physicians (FPs) fill an essential role in public health emergencies yet have frequently been neglected in pandemic response plans. This exclusion harms FPs in their clinical roles and has unintended consequences in the management of concurrent personal responsibilities, many of which were amplified by the pandemic. The objective of our study was to explore the experiences of FPs during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic to better understand how they managed their competing professional and personal priorities.

"Technology has allowed us to do a lot more but it's not necessarily the panacea for everybody": Family physician perspectives on virtual care during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

Introduction: Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, Canadian primary care practices rapidly adapted to provide care virtually. Most family physicians lacked prior training or expertise with virtual care. In the absence of formal guidance, they made individual decisions about in-person versus remote care based on clinical judgement, their longitudinal relationships with patients, and personal risk assessments.

An analysis of policies supporting the roles of family physicians in four regions in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Policy supports are needed to ensure that Family Physicians (FPs) can carry out pandemic-related roles. We conducted a document analysis in four regions in Canada to identify regulation, expenditure, and public ownership policies during the COVID-19 pandemic to support FP pandemic roles. Policies supported FP roles in five areas: FP leadership, Infection Prevention and Control (IPAC), provision of primary care services, COVID-19 vaccination, and redeployment.

Perceptions of bias in the selection of international medical graduate residency applicants in Canada.

Background: In Canada, international medical graduates (IMG) consist of immigrant-IMG and previous Canadian citizens/permanent residents who attended medical school abroad (CSA). CSA are more likely to obtain a post-graduate residency position than immigrant-IMG and previous studies have suggested that the residency selection process favours CSA over immigrant-IMG. This study explored potential sources of bias in the residency program selection process.

"I wish I had known what I was getting into": a qualitative study exploring the experiences of Canadians who study medicine abroad.

Background: An increasing number of Canadians are choosing to study medicine abroad (CSA); however, many CSA are not fully informed of the challenges that exist in returning to Canada to practice and relatively little information is known on the topic. This study explores CSA experiences in choosing to study abroad and their attempts to navigate a return to Canada to practice medicine.

Methods: We conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with CSA who were attending medical school abroad, waiting to obtain or in a post-graduate residency program, or practicing in Canada.

Strengthening the integration of primary care in pandemic response plans: a qualitative interview study of Canadian family physicians.

Background: As the first point of contact in health care, primary care providers play an integral role in pandemic response. Despite this, primary care has been overlooked in previous pandemic plans, with a lack of emphasis on ways in which the unique characteristics of family practice could be leveraged to create a more effective response.

Aim: To explore family physicians' perceptions of the integration of primary care in the COVID-19 pandemic response.

"There's nothing like a good crisis for innovation": a qualitative study of family physicians' experiences with virtual care during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: Prior to the pandemic, Canada lagged behind other Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development countries in the uptake of virtual care. The onset of COVID-19, however, resulted in a near-universal shift to virtual primary care to minimise exposure risks. As jurisdictions enter a pandemic recovery phase, the balance between virtual and in-person visits is reverting, though it is unlikely to return to pre-pandemic levels.

Family physicians' responses to personal protective equipment shortages in four regions in Canada: a qualitative study.

Background: Despite well-documented increased demands and shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) during previous disease outbreaks, health systems in Canada were poorly prepared to meet the need for PPE during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the primary care sector, PPE shortages impacted the delivery of health services and contributed to increased workload, fear, and anxiety among primary care providers. This study examines family physicians' (FPs) response to PPE shortages during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic to inform future pandemic planning.

"It was horrible for that community, but not for the way we had imagined": A qualitative study of family physicians' experiences of caring for communities experiencing marginalisation during COVID-19.

The COVID-19 response required family physicians (FPs) to adapt their practice to minimise transmission risks. Policy guidance to facilitate enacting public health measures has been generic and difficult to apply, particularly for FPs working with communities that experience marginalisation. Our objective was to explore the experiences of FPs serving communities experiencing marginalisation during COVID-19, and the impact the pandemic and pandemic response have had on physicians' ability to provide care.

Nursing contributions to virtual models of care in primary care: a scoping review protocol.

Introduction: Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, virtual care has gained increased attention, particularly in primary care for the ongoing delivery of routine services. Nurses have had an increased presence in virtual care and have contributed meaningfully to the delivery of team-based care in primary care; however, their exact contributions in virtual models of primary care remain unclear. The Nursing Role Effectiveness Model, applied in a virtual care and primary care context, outlines the association between structural variables, nursing roles and patient outcomes.

Family physician leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic: roles, functions and key supports.

Purpose: Strong leadership in primary care is necessary to coordinate an effective pandemic response; however, descriptions of leadership roles for family physicians are absent from previous pandemic plans. This study aims to describe the leadership roles and functions family physicians played during the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada and identify supports and barriers to formalizing these roles in future pandemic plans.

Design/methodology/approach: This study conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with family physicians across four regions in Canada as part of a multiple case study.