Impact of primary care management on nursing documentation.

Aim: The aim was to investigate whether perceptions of electronic nursing documentation and its performance differed because of primary health care management.

Background: Success in leading people depends on the manager's personality, the context and the people who are led. Close proximity to clinical work, with manager and personnel sharing the same profession, promotes the authority to carry out changes.

Methods: This study comprised a postal questionnaire to district nurses and an audit of nursing records from two primary health care organizations, one with a uniprofessional (nursing) organization, and one with multidisciplinary health care centres with general practitioners and/or another profession as managers.

Results: Uniprofessional nurse management increased district nurses' positive perceptions of nursing documentation but did not affect documentation performance, which was inadequate regardless of management type.

Conclusions: Positive perceptions of nursing documentation are bases for further development to a nursing documentation including a holistic view of the patient.