Unseen, unheard, undervalued: advancing research on registered nurses in primary care

Lukewich, Julia; Poitras, Marie-Ève; Mathews, Maria

doi:10.12968/pnur.2021.32.4.158

Cited by 11 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Nurses, midwives and personal care assistants are the largest groups of front‐line healthcare service workers delivering care in communities in Aotearoa New Zealand (hereafter Aotearoa), yet are often the least recognised groups of healthcare providers (Green et al., 2020; Lukewich et al., 2021). These workers provide a spectrum of services ranging from supporting daily living to administering complex pharmaceutical interventions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Community healthcare workers' experiences during and after COVID‐19 lockdown: A qualitative study from Aotearoa New Zealand

Holroyd

Long

Appleton

et al. 2022

Health Social Care Comm

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Shortly after the COVID‐19 pandemic reached Aotearoa New Zealand, stringent lockdown measures lasting 7 weeks were introduced to manage community spread of the virus. This paper reports the findings of a qualitative study examining how lockdown measures impacted upon the lives of nurses, midwives and personal care assistants caring for community‐based patients during this time. The study involved nationwide surveys and in‐depth interviews with 15 registered nurses employed in community settings, two community midwives and five personal care assistants. During the lockdown, nurses, midwives and personal care assistants working in the community showed considerable courage in answering their ‘call to duty’ by taking on heightened care responsibilities and going ‘the extra mile’ to help others. They faced significant risks to personal and professional relationships when they were required to take on additional and complex responsibilities for community‐based patients. Despite the hypervigilant monitoring of their personal protective equipment (PPE), the need to safeguard family and community members generated considerable stress and anxiety. Many also faced personal isolation and loneliness as a result of lockdown restrictions. Moreover, the negative impacts of experiences during lockdown often continued to be felt once restrictions had been lifted, inflecting life during periods in which community transmission of COVID‐19 was not occurring. This article makes five core service delivery and policy recommendations for supporting community‐based nurses, midwives and personal care assistants in respiratory disease pandemics: acknowledging the crucial role played by community‐based carers and the associated stress and anxiety they endured by championing respect and compassion; demystifying the ‘heroism’ or ‘self‐sacrifice’ projected onto care workers; the timely provision of adequate protective equipment; improving remuneration, with adequate provision for time off; and regular counselling, peer support groups and education on work‐life balance delivered by support workers in recognition of stressors arising from these complex and isolated working conditions.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Community healthcare workers' experiences during and after COVID‐19 lockdown: A qualitative study from Aotearoa New Zealand

Holroyd

Long

Appleton

et al. 2022

Health Social Care Comm

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Nurses and PCAs are the largest groups of front-line healthcare service workers delivering care in communities in Aotearoa New Zealand (hereafter Aotearoa), yet they are often the least recognized group of healthcare providers (Green, 2020; Lukewich et al, 2021). These workers provide a spectrum of services ranging from supporting daily living to administering complex pharmaceutical interventions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Community healthcare workers’ experiences during and after COVID-19 lockdown: a qualitative study from Aotearoa New Zealand

Holroyd

Long

Appleton

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic reached Aotearoa New Zealand, a stringent lockdown lasting seven weeks was introduced to manage community spread of the virus. This paper reports the findings of a qualitative study examining how lockdown policies impacted upon the lives of those caring for community-based patients. The study involved nationwide surveys and ethnographic interviews with 15 registered nurses (RN) employed in community settings, two community midwives, and five personal care assistants (PCAs).During the strict lockdown levels 4 and 3, RNs and PCAs in the community showed considerable courage in answering their “call to duty” by taking on heightened care responsibilities and going “the extra mile” to help others. They faced significant risks to personal and professional relationships when they were required to take on additional and complex responsibilities for community-based patients. Despite, and sometimes due to the hypervigilant monitoring of their personal protective equipment (PPE), the need to safeguard family and community members generated considerable stress and anxiety. Many also faced personal isolation and loneliness as a result of lockdown restrictions. Although ‘care’ and ‘kindness’ became social expectations throughout Aotearoa New Zealand during the lockdown, RNs and PCAs who were already doing care work in patient homes had to do more.This article makes five core service delivery and policy recommendations for supporting community-based nurses and PCAs in respiratory disease pandemics: acknowledging the crucial role played by community-based carers and the associated stress and anxiety endured, through championing respect and compassion; demystifying the “heroism” or “self-sacrifice” projected onto care workers to facilitate boundary setting; the timely provision of adequate protective equipment; improving remuneration with adequate provision for time off; and regular counselling, peer support groups, and education on work-life balance delivered by support workers in recognition of stressors arising from these complex and isolated working conditions.What is known about the topicNurses and personal care assistants play a pivotal role in community responses to pandemics.The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified many community healthcare workers’ clinical duties.Pandemics pose risks to healthcare workers’ physical and mental wellbeing.What this paper addsCommunity healthcare workers pressured themselves to be a “good carer” or “hero” during the lockdown.Caring for patients in the community also became about caring about patients, further intensifying workload.The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted community healthcare workers’ relationships, as well as their wellbeing. Impacts continued even once the virus was eliminated.Need for recognition of this workforce distinct from other care workers.

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“…The World Health Organization (WHO) describes the Family and Community Nurse Practitioner (FCNP) as the professional who, through a comprehensive and holistic vision, takes on the mission of accompanying people from birth to death to develop their health potential, promoting the different family, work, and social environments to facilitate this development ( 1 , 2 ). These professionals are prominent components of multidisciplinary primary care teams alongside other health professionals ( 3 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experiences in the training of specialist family and community nurses: a qualitative study

Sánchez-Muñoz,

Fernández-Medina,

Granero-Molina

et al. 2023

Front. Public Health

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IntroductionThe specialist Family and Community Nurse Practitioner (FCNP) is a professional who, after a period of training, is qualified to be part of multidisciplinary teams in primary care. The aim of this study was to describe and understand the experiences of nurses during their training process in the specialty of Family and Community Nursing in Spain.MethodsA descriptive qualitative study was carried out. Participants were recruited by means of convenience sampling from January to April 2022. Sixteen specialist nurses in Family and Community Nursing from different autonomous communities in Spain participated in the study. Twelve individual interviews and one focus group were conducted. Data were analyzed following a thematic analysis method in ATLAS.ti 9.ResultsThe results showed two themes and six subthemes: (1) Residency period, more than a training: (a) Training during the residency period; (b) Specializing through a constant struggle; (c) Moderate optimism about the future of the specialty; and (2) A journey from illusion to disappointment: (a) Beginning of the residency: feeling special; (b) During the residency: between satisfaction and misunderstanding; (c) At the end of the residency: power and frustration.ConclusionsThe residency period is important in the training and acquisition of competencies for the Family and Community Nurse Practitioner. Improvements are needed to ensure quality training during residency and to help give visibility to the specialty.

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Unseen, unheard, undervalued: advancing research on registered nurses in primary care

Cited by 11 publications

References 20 publications

Community healthcare workers' experiences during and after COVID‐19 lockdown: A qualitative study from Aotearoa New Zealand

Community healthcare workers' experiences during and after COVID‐19 lockdown: A qualitative study from Aotearoa New Zealand

Community healthcare workers’ experiences during and after COVID-19 lockdown: a qualitative study from Aotearoa New Zealand

Experiences in the training of specialist family and community nurses: a qualitative study

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