Dear Respondent,
Thank you for taking the time to fill in this questionnaire.
This questionnaire is part of a research carried out within the Enhance project, a three-year Erasmus+ project (2017-2019) that aims to address the mismatch between the skills currently offered by nurses working in Primary Health Care (PHC) and those actually demanded by both public health care institutions and private service providers when applying innovative healthcare models centered on PHC which should provide accessible, continued, comprehensive and coordinated care providing a gateway between the community and the health systems.
To address these gaps, the project will develop a standardized professional profile for family and community nurses taking into account WHO and EU recommendations, define a FCN European Curriculum based on the new PHC model and develop guidelines to support the localization of the curriculums at national level.
The overall aim of this survey is to identify and assess the perspective of service providers employing or cooperating with family and community nurses and/or other professionals working in the primary health sector in terms the services these professionals provide. The results of the survey will be used in developing the new European educational curriculum for family and community nurses.
Explanation of concepts
Family and Community Nurse (FCN) is defined as a qualified-professional nurse who is able to apply evidence-based nursing practices (theoretical & practical knowledge, skills and, competencies) in order to identify and assess the health status and the needs of individuals and families in their cultural context and in the community. Specifically, their role is to control and manage chronic diseases including disorders, syndromes and disabilities by promoting health of community-dwelling population and, to enhance family's health by providing nursing care at home particularly and person-centered care to older people.
Family and community nurses are nurses who practice outside of the hospital setting. Please note that the terminology for such professionals varies from country to country. These can be referred to as “district nurses”, “public health nurses” or have no specific terminology.
Primary health care (PHC) professionals canvary between countries and in size: the core team usually is the general practitioner and a nurse but can comprise a multidisciplinary team of up to 30 professionals including speech therapists, kinesiotherapists, psychotherapists, psychiatrists, orthopaedists, ophthalmologists, pharmacists, nutritionists, health visitors, home care specialists, etc.
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Thank you in advance for sharing your knowledge and experience. We appreciate your time and your contribution to our efforts in improving our understanding how of the relationship between service providers and family and community nurses or primary-care professionals and what should be improved in providing better quality community-based services.