[Expectations, requirements and limitations of future task sharing between the nursing profession and the medical profession: results from the Care-N Study M-V].

Background: The aging population causes a sustained increase in demand of medical and nursing care services. At the same time health care professionals are aging, too. This leads to a growing number of health care gaps.

[Delegation and substitution of specific medical tasks as a future model of health care supply].

Changing health care needs caused by changing demographics lead to an increasing demand for medical and nursing care in Germany. A declining number of general practitioners will soon cause a lack of health care supply in a growing number of regions. Nurses constituting the largest occupational group in the health care system contribute by filling the resulting gap.

[Future nursing opportunities - professionalisation and restructuring of scope of duties].

Demographic trends and expected changes regarding future health care require substantial structural reforms of the German health care system. It is generally assumed that nursing education and training as well as curriculum development and also the competencies of professional nurses must adapt to the changing demands of health care supply. Moreover, the expected shortage of general practitioners demands solutions for easing their growing workload, which will include the assignment of certain services to health care professionals which perform these services autonomously or in behalf of the practitioner.

A curriculum for nurses in Germany undertaking medically-delegated tasks in primary care.

Aim: This paper is a report of a study conducted to develop a qualification for nurses in primary care based on the delegation of medical tasks in order to relieve general practitioners and to supply the population in rural regions today and in the future.

Background: Age-demographic changes will cause medical care supply problems, especially for older people, motivating a re-evaluation of the nursing role in ambulatory medical care.

Methods: An intervention study was conducted in Germany between 1 January 2006 and 31 December 2007, comprising a theoretical and practical phase evaluated by participants, general practitioners and patients through questionnaires, reflection rounds and structured interviews during and after the practice phase.