The Role of Primary Health Care Professionals

Author(s):  
Alfonso M. Cueto-Manzano ◽  
Héctor R. Martínez-Ramírez ◽  
Laura Cortés-Sanabria ◽  
Enrique Rojas-Campos
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 496
Author(s):  
Sanneke Schepman ◽  
Dinny De Bakker ◽  
Ronald Batenburg

2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 362-369
Author(s):  
Katie A. Willson ◽  
Gerard J. FitzGerald ◽  
David Lim

AbstractObjective:This scoping review aims to map the roles of rural and remote primary health care professionals (PHCPs) during disasters.Introduction:Disasters can have catastrophic impacts on society and are broadly classified into natural events, man-made incidents, or a mixture of both. The PHCPs working in rural and remote communities face additional challenges when dealing with disasters and have significant roles during the Prevention, Preparedness, Response, and Recovery (PPRR) stages of disaster management.Methods:A Johanna Briggs Institute (JBI) scoping review methodology was utilized, and the search was conducted over seven electronic databases according to a priori protocol.Results:Forty-one papers were included and sixty-one roles were identified across the four stages of disaster management. The majority of disasters described within the literature were natural events and pandemics. Before a disaster occurs, PHCPs can build individual resilience through education. As recognized and respected leaders within their community, PHCPs are invaluable in assisting with disaster preparedness through being involved in organizations’ planning policies and contributing to natural disaster and pandemic surveillance. Key roles during the response stage include accommodating patient surge, triage, maintaining the health of the remaining population, instituting infection control, and ensuring a team-based approach to mental health care during the disaster. In the aftermath and recovery stage, rural and remote PHCPs provide long-term follow up, assisting patients in accessing post-disaster support including delivery of mental health care.Conclusion:Rural and remote PHCPs play significant roles within their community throughout the continuum of disaster management. As a consequence of their flexible scope of practice, PHCPs are well-placed to be involved during all stages of disaster, from building of community resilience and contributing to early alert of pandemics, to participating in the direct response when a disaster occurs and leading the way to recovery.


2007 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Mauldon

This paper reports on the attitudes of a sample of health care providers towards the use of telehealth to support rural patients and integrate rural primary health and urban hospital care. Telehealth and other information technologies hold the promise of improving the quality of care for people in rural and remote areas and for supporting rural primary health care providers. While seemingly beneficial for rural patients, study participants believed that telehealth remains underused and poorly integrated into their practice. In general, participants thought that telehealth is potentially beneficial but places constraints on their activities, and few actually used it. Published literature usually reports either on the success of telehealth pilot projects or initiatives that are well resourced and do not reflect the constraints of routine practice, or has an international focus limiting its relevance to the Australian context. Because of the paucity of systematic and generalisable research into the effects of the routine use of telehealth to support rural patients, it is unclear why health care professionals choose to provide such services or the costs and benefits they incur in doing so. Research and policy initiatives continue to be needed to identify the impact of telehealth within the context of Australian primary health care and to develop strategies to support its use.


2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Franziska Maria Keller ◽  
Christina Derksen ◽  
Lukas Kötting ◽  
Martina Schmiedhofer ◽  
Sonia Lippke

Abstract Background Patient-centered care and patient involvement have been increasingly recognized as crucial elements of patient safety. However, patient safety has rarely been evaluated from the patient perspective with a quantitative approach aiming at making patient safety and preventable adverse events measurable. Objectives The objectives of this study were to develop and evaluate the psychometric properties of a questionnaire assessing patient safety by perceived triggers of preventable adverse events among patients in primary health-care settings while considering mental health. Methods Two hundred and ten participants were recruited through various digital and print channels and asked to complete an online survey between November 2019 and April 2020. Exploratory factor analysis was performed to identify domains of triggers of preventable adverse events affecting patient safety. Furthermore, a multi-trait scaling analysis was performed to evaluate internal reliability as well as item-scale convergent–discriminant validity. A multivariate analysis of covariance evaluated whether individuals below and above the symptom threshold for depression and generalized anxiety perceive triggers of preventable adverse events differently. Results The five factors determined were information and communication with patients, time constraints of health-care professionals, diagnosis and treatment, hygiene and communication among health-care professionals, and knowledge and operational procedures. The questionnaire demonstrated a good total and subscale internal consistency (α = 0.90, range = 0.75–0.88), good item-scale convergent validity with significant correlations between 0.57 and 0.78 (P < 0.05; P < 0.01) for all items with their associated subscales, and satisfactory item-scale discriminant validity between 0.14 and 0.55 (P > 0.05) with no significant correlations between the items and their competing subscales. The questionnaire further revealed to be a generic measure irrespective of patients’ mental health status. Patients older than 50 years of age perceived a significantly greater threat to their own safety compared to patients below that age. Conclusion The developed Perceptions of Preventable Adverse Events Assessment Tool (PPAEAT) exhibits good psychometric properties, which supports its use in future research and primary health-care practice. Further validation of the PPAEAT in different settings, languages and larger samples is needed. The results of this study need to be considered when assessing patient safety in the context of health-care research.


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