Comparisons in the therapeutic management of Black paediatric outpatients by primary health care nurses and doctors.

Studies were conducted in 1977 and again in 1980 comparing the knowledge and information escorts of paediatric outpatients had about the child's illness and treatment after completing primary care consultations of various kinds. Primary health care nurses achieved the best communication as judged by answers to a questionnaire administered to the escorts by a social worker. Understanding was greater when patients were seen initially by doctors in the Department of Paediatrics outpatient clinic rather than by doctors in the Soweto polyclinics. Some of the associated factors are discussed.