The effects of primary nursing on work-related factors.

This study investigates the effects of a primary nursing care delivery system on some work-related factors of nurses in long-stay psychiatric care settings. In a quasi-experimental research design a cohort of 176 nurses was followed for 2.5 years. Results showed that as a result of primary nursing the primary nurses found more autonomy in their work and experienced it to be less complex. Furthermore, primary nurses performed personal care tasks less frequently and worked more according to a patient-oriented care model. Several additional analyses were performed owing to the two main problems encountered in this study, namely a high dropout due to job turnover among nurses and the imitation of the intervention by the control group.