Unfinished business: the impact of single nurse clinics on the delivery of Primary Health Care in remote communities

Unfinished business: the impact of single nurse clinics on the delivery of Primary Health Care in remote communities

ABSTRACT
Objective: This study explored the likely impact of changing single remote area nurse (RAN) clinics to two nurse clinics in remote Australia- particularly in Queensland which is one of the last States in Australia to make this change. There is an extremely high turnover rate of remote area nurses (RANs) coupled with poor health outcomes in isolated communities of Australia means these communities are disadvantaged when compared to regional & metropolitan regions. The study found RANs believe that if isolated community clinics have two RANs rather than one, nurses would feel safer, suffer less burnout and be better able to provide adequate primary health care.

Design: A Triangular cross sectional two stage process of data collection with typical case sampling was utilized for the study including;
i) a mail-out to all CRANA nurses,
ii) in depth interviews with RANs

Participants: Remote area nurses working in small isolated (often Indigenous) communities throughout Australia.

Results: respondents indicated that in single nurse clinics they often feel unsafe and unable to provide the level of care required

Conclusions: Staffing current single nurse clinics with two or more nurses will improve RAN’s ability to provide appropriate Primary Health Care. It would also impact on recruitment and retention of RANs in isolated practice and help improve health seeking behaviours and health outcomes in remote communities.

Report.