The Patient's First Point of Contact

The Patient's First Point of Contact (PINPOINT) - Protocol of a Prospective Multicentre Study of Communication and Decision-making During Patient Assessments by Primary Care Practice Nurses

The overall objective of this observational study is to investigate practices of communication and decision-making during nurses' initial assessment of patients' health problems in primary care, examine working mechanisms in good practices and develop feasible solutions.

The specific aims are:

1. To investigate patients' expectations and experiences with the communication and decision-making during their first contact with a registered nurse (RN) in primary care.
2. To investigate patient-RN communication on the level of patient involvement.
3. To investigate RNs' actual communication, assessments and decision-making, value conflicts and the challenges and strategies they use in prioritizing.
4. To analyse the underlying working mechanisms of good communication practices.
5. To develop methodologies for facilitating efficient processes in assessing, managing, and prioritizing patients in primary care for RNs.

Project PINPOINT aims for a prospective multicenter study, using various methods for data collection and analysis.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Registered Nurses at primary care centres and patients seeking primary care for a new health concern or a new episode of a problem

Exclusion Criteria:

• Patients visiting the primary care nurse with a chronic or continuous health problem