Clinical challenges and ongoing role changes for primary health-care nurses.

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the perceptions of primary health-care nurses (PHNs) about clinical demands and future challenges.

METHOD

Qualitative content-analysis of open questions from a questionnaire. A total of 121 PHNs from health-care districts in northern Sweden filled in a questionnaire during a mandatory educational day.

RESULTS

Key issues that were raised included: defending the specific professional role of the PHNs; strengthening their self-governance and authority; and ensuring adequate care in the future through education that focuses more on nursing practice than on academic work.

CONCLUSION

To ensure that the role of the PHN continues to develop, it is necessary to enable them to articulate, discuss, and evaluate their profession and to learn, in concrete forms, how to implement science in clinical practice.