Nurse practitioners changing health behaviours: one patient at a time.

In 2005, legislation was enacted allowing nurse practitioners (NPs) to practise in British Columbia, Canada. Although substantial human and financial resources had been dedicated to the implementation of the role, no evaluation has been conducted to date. As part of a larger multiphase, mixed-methods study design, which evaluated the integration of NPs into the British Columbia healthcare system, this article describes findings related to changes that result for patients and the implications for the healthcare system when NPs become part of the care process. Using survey and interview data, themes that emerged were patient satisfaction, access to care, and behavioural changes. Findings suggest that patients are satisfied with the care they receive from NPs and that NPs make positive changes to health behaviour.

Nurse Practitioner Perceptions of the Impact of Electronic Medical Records Upon Clinical Practice.

A survey was conducted in the province of British Columba, Canada with nurse practitioners (NP). This paper reports on the quantitative and qualitative findings of the survey questions specifically focused on NP perceptions of the clinical impacts associated with using electronic medical records (EMRs) in a primary care setting. Findings suggest that although NPs perceived EMRs to improve the overall quality of clinical decisions, challenges remain in terms of tailoring the design of EMRs to address NP needs.

How are electronic medical records used by nurse practitioners?

In this paper we describe how nurse practitioners (NPs) use electronic medical records (EMR) features and functions at: (1) an individual and (2) a clinic level to support patient wellness and chronic disease management activities. Fifteen NPs from British Columbia (BC), Canada participated in a qualitative, semi-structured interview study. NPs used EMRs with individual patients and at a clinic level to support wellness and chronic disease management activities. NP's used clinic notes, reminders, tasks and careplans to support wellness and disease management activities in individual patients while reports were used to manage patients at a clinic level.

Discovering health knowledge in the BC nurse practitioners encounter codes.

Integrating the Nurse Practitioner (NP) role into clinical practice settings is new in British Columbia (BC), Canada. Encounter codes are unique numeric codes assigned to specific types of patient care services performed by NPs. In this study we apply knowledge discovery techniques to analyze the encounter codes extracted from the BC Ministry of Health database to understand the most common practice activities carried out by NPs and what diseases patients sought care for from NPs. The analysis produced important information about NPs' practice patterns. This work leads to a better understanding of NP practice patterns in BC.

Electronic Record Adoption and Use among Nurse Practitioners in British Columbia.

There has been a research focus on physician adoption of electronic medical records (EMRs). However, there has been less research into nurse practitioner (NP) use of EMRs. The authors present findings on the adoption and use of EMRs by NPs arising from a survey of the patterns of NP practices in the Canadian province of British Columbia. The research reveals a high rate of NP adoption of EMRs, with 82% of respondents indicating that they were using the technology. However, only 19% of NPs were using fully electronic records while 63% were using hybrid records, with only components of the electronic record being available. Respondents were found to be using several EMR features and functions, namely patient demographics, clinical notes, medication lists, laboratory results, and patient problems. NPs' high rate of EMR adoption suggests that there is much to be learned regarding the effect of eHealth strategies on EMR adoption.

L'adoption par les médecins de la tenue de dossiers médicaux électroniques (DME) a fait l'objet de nombreuses recherches. Toutefois, les recherches portant sur l'utilisation de DME par les infirmières praticiennes (IP) se font beaucoup plus rares. Les auteures présentent les résultats d'une étude portant sur les tendances relevées chez les IP œuvrant dans la province canadienne de la Colombie-Britannique, relativement à l'adoption et l'utilisation de DME. L'étude révèle un taux élevé d'IP travaillant avec des DME, 82 % d'entre elles indiquant qu'elles utilisent maintenant cette technologie. Cependant, seulement 19 % d'IP travaillent avec des dossiers entièrement informatisés alors que 63 % utilisent des dossiers hybrides, la partie électronique du dossier ne comportant que certains éléments. Les personnes qui ont répondu utilisent plusieurs fonctions électroniques, notamment celles permettant la gestion des données démographiques du patient, des notes cliniques, des listes de médicaments et des résultats de laboratoire ainsi que des données sur les troubles du patient. Le taux élevé d'adoption de cette technologie chez les IP suggère la nécessité d'étudier davantage les effets des stratégies de cybersanté sur l'utilisation de DME.