Prevalence and associations of general practice nurses' involvement in consultations of general practitioner registrars: a cross-sectional analysis.

Objective: To establish prevalence and associations of general practice nurses' (GPNs) involvement in general practitioner (GP) registrars' consultations.

Methods: A cross-sectional analysis from an ongoing cohort study of registrars' clinical consultations in five Australian states. Registrars recorded detailed data from 60 consecutive consultations per 6-month training term. Problems and diagnoses encountered, including chronic disease classification, were coded using the International Classification of Primary Care, second edition duplication system (ICPC-2plus) classification system. The outcome factor in our analysis was GPN involvement in management of individual problems and diagnoses. Independent variables were a range of patient, registrar, practice, consultation and educational factors.

Results: We analysed 108 759 consultations of 856 registrars including 169 307 problems or diagnoses. Of the problems/diagnoses, 5.1% (95% confidence interval (CI) 5.0-5.2) involved a GPN. Follow-up with a GPN was organised for 1.5% (95% CI 1.4-1.5) of all problems/diagnoses. Significant associations of GPN involvement included patient age, male sex, Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander status, non-English-speaking background (NESB) and the patient being new to the practice. Larger practice size, the particular training organisation, and the problem/diagnosis being new and not a chronic disease were other associations.

Conclusions: Associations with Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander status and NESB status suggest GPNs are addressing healthcare needs of these under-serviced groups. But GPNs may be underutilised in chronic disease care.