Patients may prefer nurse practitioners to docs

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Patients may prefer nurse practitioners to docs

By Charnicia E. Huggins

NEW YORK, Apr 05 (Reuters Health) - Some UK patients seem to be more

satisfied with the care they receive from nurse practitioners than the

care they receive from doctors, new study findings suggest.

Many health practices in the United States and Canada have been staffed

with nurse practitioners for years, but in Britain, it is a " much more

recent phenomenon, " study author Dr. Salisbury of the University

of Bristol, UK, told Reuters Health.

In fact, some " practices tend to introduce them rather hesitantly, "

unsure of how patients will react to being treated by a nurse rather

than a doctor, he added.

Yet, based on his team's review of 34 studies comparing nurse

practitioners and doctors, " nurse practitioners can provide care that

leads to increased patient satisfaction and similar health outcomes when

compared with care from a doctor, " the authors write.

Overall, the study results suggest that nurse practitioners generally

outshine doctors in the quality of care they provide to patients,

according to the report in the April 6th issue of the British Medical

Journal.

For example, nurse practitioners appeared to identify more physical

abnormalities, keep more complete records and communicate better than

doctors, the report indicates. They also seemed to advise patients about

self-care and management more often than did doctors.

Further, results from five studies that evaluated the length of time

spent in consultations revealed that patients spent nearly 4 minutes

longer in consultations with nurse practitioners than with doctors.

" (This) suggests that patients were more satisfied with consultations

with nurse practitioners than those with doctors, " Salisbury and

colleagues report.

The investigators also found that patients fared equally well in terms

of their health status when they were cared for either by nurse

practitioners or doctors.

" Nurse practitioners seemed to provide a quality of care that is at

least as good, and in some ways better, than doctors, " Salisbury and his

team write.

" Increasing availability of nurse practitioners in primary care is

likely to lead to high levels of patient satisfaction and high quality

care, " the investigators conclude.

The findings have great implications for Britain, Salisbury added,

because in cases " when there's a shortage of docs, " having more nurse

practitioners is a way to provide " more manpower. "

SOURCE: British Medical Journal 2002;324:819-823.