NCC demonstrated to have an effect on a small number of outcomes .
NCC that incorporated blood pressure monitoring , cholesterol control and smoking cessation has an impact on the improvement of secondary prevention .
Current guidelines on secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease recommend nurse-coordinated care ( NCC ) as an effective intervention .
However , NCC programmes differ widely and the efficacy of NCC components has not been studied .
Effectiveness of nurse-delivered cardiovascular risk management in primary care: a randomised trial.
BACKGROUND A substantial part of cardiovascular disease prevention is delivered in primary care . Special attention should be paid to the assessment of cardiovascular risk factors . According to the Dutch guideline for cardiovascular risk management , the heavy workload of cardiovascular risk management for GPs could be shared with advanced practice nurses . AIM To investigate the clinical effectiveness of practice nurses acting as substitutes for GPs in cardiovascular risk management after 1 year of follow-up . DESIGN OF STUDY Prospect i ve pragmatic r and omised trial . SETTING Primary care in the south of the Netherl and s. Six centres ( 25 GPs , six nurses ) participated . METHOD A total of 1626 potentially eligible patients at high risk for cardiovascular disease were r and omised to a practice nurse group ( n = 808 ) or a GP group ( n = 818 ) in 2006 . In total , 701 patients were included in the trial . The Dutch guideline for cardiovascular risk management was used as the protocol , with st and ardised techniques for risk assessment . Changes in the following risk factors after 1 year were measured : lipids , systolic blood pressure , and body mass index . In addition , patients in the GP group received a brief question naire . RESULTS A larger decrease in the mean level of risk factors was observed in the practice nurse group compared with the GP group . After controlling for confounders , only the larger decrease in total cholesterol in the practice nurse group was statistically significant ( P = 0.01 , two-sided ) . CONCLUSION Advanced practice nurses are achieving results , equal to or better than GPs for the management of risk factors . The findings of this study support the involvement of practice nurses in cardiovascular risk management in Dutch primary care
NCC demonstrated to have an effect on a small number of outcomes .
NCC that incorporated blood pressure monitoring , cholesterol control and smoking cessation has an impact on the improvement of secondary prevention .
Current guidelines on secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease recommend nurse-coordinated care ( NCC ) as an effective intervention .
However , NCC programmes differ widely and the efficacy of NCC components has not been studied .