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District nurses’ experiences of using a clinical decision support system and an assessment tool at elderly care units in primary health care: a qualitative study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 September 2021

Annica Lagerin
Affiliation:
Department of Health Care Sciences, Ersta Sköndal Bräcke University College, Stockholm, Sweden
Lena Törnkvist
Affiliation:
Division of Family Medicine and Primary Care, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden Head of Continuing Professional Education and Health Care Development Unit, Academic Primary Health Care Centre, Region Stockholm, Sweden
Johan Fastbom
Affiliation:
Aging Research Center (ARC), Karolinska Institutet Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
Lena Lundh*
Affiliation:
Division of Family Medicine and Primary Care, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden Head of Continuing Professional Education and Health Care Development Unit, Academic Primary Health Care Centre, Region Stockholm, Sweden
*
Author for correspondence: Lena Lundh, Head of Lifestyle Unit, RN, PhD, Academic Primary Health Care Centre, Region Stockholm, Box 45436, 104 31, Stockholm and Division of Family Medicine and Primary Care, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. E-mail: lena.lund@ki.se
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Abstract

Aim:

The present study aimed to describe the experience of district nurses (DNs) in using a clinical decision support system (CDSS) and the safe medication assessment (SMA) tool during patient visits to elderly care units at primary health care centres.

Background:

In Swedish primary health care, general practitioners (GPs) prescribe and have the responsibility to regularly review older adults’ medications, while DN (nurses specialised in primary health care) play an important role in assessing older adults’ ability to manage their medications, detecting potential drug-related problems and communicating with patients and GPs about such problems. In a previous feasibility study, we found that DNs who use a combination of a CDSS and the SMA tool identified numerous potentially harmful or dangerous factors and took a number of nursing care actions to improve the safety and quality of patients’ medication use. In telephone interviews, patients indicated that they were positive towards the assessment and interventions.

Methods:

Individual interviews with seven DNs who worked at six different primary health care centres in Region Stockholm were carried out in 2018. In 2019, an additional group interview was conducted with two of the seven DNs so they could discuss and comment on preliminary findings. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the interview transcripts.

Findings: Using the tools, the DNs could have a natural conversation about medication use with older adults. They could get a clear picture of the older adults’ medication use and thus obtain information that could facilitate collaboration with GPs about this important component of health care for older adults. However, for the tools to be used in clinical practice, some barriers would have to be overcome, such as the time-consuming nature of using the tools and the lack of established routines for interprofessional collaboration regarding medication discussions.

Information

Type
Research
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press
Figure 0

Table 1. Illustration of the process of the content analysis

Figure 1

Table 2. District nurses’ experiences of barriers to and facilitators to achieving a natural conversation, gaining a clear picture and collaboration with GPs when using the clinical decisions support system and safe medication assessment tool during patient visits to elderly care units