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Background Current and expected problems such as ageing, increased prevalence of chronic conditions and multi‐morbidity, increased emphasis on healthy lifestyle and prevention, and substitution for care from hospitals by care provided in the community encourage countries worldwide to develop new models of primary care delivery. Owing to the fact that many tasks do not necessarily require the knowledge and skills of a doctor, interest in using nurses to expand the capacity of the primary care workforce is increasing. Substitution of nurses for doctors is one strategy used to improve access, efficiency, and quality of care. This is the first update of the Cochrane review published in 2005. Objectives Our aim was to investigate the impact of nurses working as substitutes for primary care doctors on: • patient outcomes; • processes of care; and • utilisation, including volume and cost. Search methods We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), part of the Cochrane Library ( ), as well as MEDLINE, Ovid, and the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) and EbscoHost (searched 20.01.2015). We searched for grey literature in the Grey Literature Report and OpenGrey (21.02.2017), and we searched the International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) and ClinicalTrials.gov trial registries (21.02.2017). We did a cited reference search for relevant studies (searched 27.01 2015) and checked reference lists of all included studies. We reran slightly revised strategies, limited to publication years between 2015 and 2017, for CENTRAL, MEDLINE, and CINAHL, in March 2017, and we have added one trial to ‘Studies awaiting classification’. Selection criteria Randomised trials evaluating the outcomes of nurses working as substitutes for doctors. The review is limited to primary healthcare services that provide first contact and ongoing care for patients with all types of health problems, excluding mental health problems. Studies which evaluated nurses supplementing the work of primary care doctors were excluded. Data collection and analysis Two review authors independently carried out data extraction and assessment of risk of bias of included studies. When feasible, we combined study results and determined an overall estimate of the effect. We evaluated other outcomes by completing a structured synthesis. Main results For this review, we identified 18 randomised trials evaluating the impact of nurses working as substitutes for doctors. One study was conducted in a middle‐income country, and all other studies in high‐income countries. The nursing level was often unclear or varied between and even within studies. The studies looked at nurses involved in first contact care (including urgent care), ongoing care for physical complaints, and foll...

World-wide, shortages of primary care physicians and an increased demand for services have provided the impetus for delivering team-based primary care. The diversity of the primary care workforce is increasing to include a wider range of health professionals such as nurse practitioners, registered nurses and other clinical staff members. Although this development is observed internationally, skill mix in the primary care team and the speed of progress to deliver team-based care differs across countries. This work aims to provide an overview of education, tasks and remuneration of nurses and other primary care team members in six OECD countries. Based on a framework of team organization across the care continuum, six national experts compare skill-mix, education and training, tasks and remuneration of health professionals within primary care teams in the United States, Canada, Australia, England, Germany and the Netherlands. Nurses are the main non-physician health professional working along with doctors in most countries although types and roles in primary care vary considerably between countries. However, the number of allied health professionals and support workers, such as medical assistants, working in primary care is increasing. Shifting from 'task delegation' to 'team care' is a global trend but limited by traditional role concepts, legal frameworks and reimbursement schemes. In general, remuneration follows the complexity of medical tasks taken over by each profession. Clear definitions of each team-member's role may facilitate optimally shared responsibility for patient care within primary care teams. Skill mix changes in primary care may help to maintain access to primary care and quality of care delivery. Learning from experiences in other countries may inspire policy makers and researchers to work on efficient and effective teams care models worldwide.

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