Attitudes of Medical Doctors and Nurses Towards the Role of the Nurses in the Primary Care Unit in Italy

Background: Nowadays, in Italy, the role of the nurse in primary care is still under-recognized and most primary care medical offices are managed individually by a physician.

Methods: The study consists of a questionnaire-based cross-sectional survey carried out in Piedmont, Italy, between February and September 2015.FindingsWe included 105 participants, 57 nurses and 48 physicians. The presence of a nurse working together with the GP was defined as 'useful' by 54.4% of nurses (versus 60.4% of physicians), as 'essential' by 45.6% of nurses (versus 25.0% of physicians), as 'marginal' by no nurses (versus 14.6% of physicians) and as 'unimportant' by none (P=0.002). Thus, physicians seemed to be less favorable towards a full collaboration and power-sharing with nurses. Furthermore, GPs and nurses showed a different attitude towards the role of nurses in primary care: while nurses highlighted their clinical value, physicians tended rather to recognize them a 'supportive' role. Moreover, only 20.8% of the physicians interviewed stated that they worked with a nurse. At the multivariate analysis, the age class resulted to be a significant predictor of the perception that the presence of a nurse working with the GP is essential: participants >50 years had an OR of 0.03 (P=0.028). Although the primary care organization appears still largely based on a traditional physician-centric care model, the positive attitude of nurses and young GPs towards a more collaborative model of primary care might represent a promising starting point.