Perspectives of health professionals on providing person-centred care in a primary healthcare setting
Creators: name: Moloney, Ali
Publisher: name: University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland
Year: 2025
Subjects: subject: person-centred care
subject: patient-centred care
subject: primary healthcare
subject: perspectives
subject: perceptions
subject: health professionals
subject: Nursing
subject: FOS: Health sciences

description: Background: Person-centred care focuses on addressing individual patient’s needs to enable the person to make informed decisions about their healthcare. It is important to understand what patients’ and their significant others’ needs are to provide appropriate and efficient care. Although evidence supports providing person-centred care through frameworks such as Universal Health Coverage by the World Health Organization, limited evidence is found in understanding health professionals’ perspectives, nor is there much evidence that relates directly to person-centred care in primary healthcare. Aim: This study aimed to explore the perspectives of health professionals on providing person-centred care.
description: Methods: This interpretive study was conducted in a regional primary healthcare setting. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted. Recorded interview data were transcribed, and Braun’s and Clarke’s framework was used to guide thematic analysis.
description: Results: Twenty-one (21) health professionals participated in the study. Findings revealed three enablers of person-centred care, including collaboration, evidence informed practice, and people-centredness. Health professionals viewed collaboration among staff as a critical enabler of person-centred care, facilitating comprehensive and coordinated care tailored to individual patient’s needs. Access to healthcare services acted as a supportive mechanism, ensuring that patients receive timely and equitable care. Health professionals observed improvements in patient satisfaction, adherence to treatment plans, and overall health and well-being as a significant motivator for the continued practice of person-centred care.
description: Barriers to the effective implementation of person-centred care included time constraints and patients’ challenges with health literacy. The demands of administrative tasks and high patient volumes limited the ability of health professionals to engage fully in person-centred care interactions. Also, health professionals perceived patients often struggling to understand complex medical information, thereby impeding effective communication and shared decision-making.
description: Discussion: These findings underscore the importance of addressing time constraints and enhancing patients’ health literacy to overcome barriers to person-centred care. Also, fostering collaboration among health professionals and ensuring access to care are essential for promoting positive patient outcomes and successfully adopting person-centred practices in primary healthcare settings. Furthermore, this research contributes to a deeper understanding of the barriers and enablers in providing personcentred care, which may provide policymakers and healthcare administrators some insights to enhance the quality of care through person-centred approaches. Offering health professionals education surrounding person-centred care is important to increase their awareness and understanding of the benefits of person-centred care, therefore improving patient outcomes through collaboration and person-centred care in primary healthcare.