ArticleThe British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners2008
Healthcare assistants in general practice: practical and conceptual issues of skill-mix change.
Article in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Delegation of medication administration from registered nurses to non-registered support workers in community care settings: A systematic review with critical interpretive synthesis.International journal of nursing studies · 2022Pooled it
- Implementing large-scale workforce change: learning from 55 pilot sites of allied health workforce redesign in Queensland, Australia.Human resources for health · 2013Pooled it
- The impact of integrating medical assistants and community health workers on diabetes care management in community health centers.BMC health services research · 2018Trial
- Trial
- Trial
- Are Nurses and Auxiliary Healthcare Workers Equally Effective in Delivering Smoking Cessation Support in Primary Care?Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2016Trial
- Sharing Responsibilities within the General Practice Team - A Cross-Sectional Study of Task Delegation in Germany.PloS one · 2016Trial
- Article
- [On the Potential of Prevention Counselors in the Primary Care Setting: Evaluation Study of an Intervention in the State of Brandenburg (Germany)].Gesundheitswesen (Bundesverband der Arzte des Offentlichen Gesundheitsdienstes (Germany)) · 2024Article
- Musculoskeletal patients' preferences for care from physiotherapists or support workers: a discrete choice experiment.BMC health services research · 2024Article
- Characterising support and care assistants in formal hospital settings: a scoping review.Human resources for health · 2023Article
- Stop smoking advice by practice assistants after routine cervical screening in general practice: A qualitative exploration of potential barriers and enablers.The European journal of general practice · 2022Article
- Healthcare practitioner views and experiences of patients self-monitoring blood pressure: a vignette study.BJGP open · 2020Article
- Delegating home visits in general practice: a realist review on the impact on GP workload and patient care.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2020Review
- Informal task-sharing practices in inpatient newborn settings in a low-income setting-A task analysis approach.Nursing open · 2020Article
- Cost-effectiveness analysis of case management for optimized antithrombotic treatment in German general practices compared to usual care - results from the PICANT trial.Health economics review · 2019Article
- Effective coverage and budget implications of skill-mix change to improve neonatal nursing care: an explorative simulation study in Kenya.BMJ global health · 2019Article
- The changing landscape of professional practice in podiatry, lessons to be learned from other professions about the barriers to change - a narrative review.Journal of foot and ankle research · 2019Review
- Changes in prescribed medicines in older patients with multimorbidity and polypharmacy in general practice.BMC family practice · 2018Article
- Patient-perceived barriers and facilitators to the implementation of a medication review in primary care: a qualitative thematic analysis.BMC family practice · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The emergence of healthcare assistants (HCAs) in general practice raises questions about roles and responsibilities, patients' acceptance, cost-effectiveness, patient safety and delegation, training and competence, workforce development, and professional identity. There has been minimal research into the role of HCAs and their experiences, as well as those of other staff working with HCAs in general practice. Lessons may be learned from their role and evidence of their effectiveness in hospital settings. Such research highlights blurred and contested role boundaries and threats to professional identity, which have implications for teamwork, quality of patient care, and patient safety. In this paper it is argued that transferability of evidence from hospital settings to the context of general practice cannot be assumed. Drawing on the limited research in general practice, the challenges and benefits of developing the HCA role in general practice are discussed. It is suggested that in the context of changing skill-mix models, viewing roles as fluid and dynamic is more helpful and reflective of individuals' experiences than endeavouring to impose fixed role boundaries. It is concluded that HCAs can make an increasingly useful contribution to the skill mix in general practice, but that more research and evaluation are needed to inform their training and development within the general practice team.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.