Clarification of Nurses' Expected Role in Health Promotion

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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The purpose of this study is to implement and evaluate ROLE-AP, a multi-component program to clarify primary care nurses' expected role in health promotion. It is hypothesized that, in comparison with the control group, participants in the experimental group will increase their degree of agreement on nurses' role in health promotion.

Detailed Description
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Role confusion is hampering the development of primary care nurses' capacity for health promotion. Organizations can implement role clarification programs to develop the description of an expected role in the organization and reduce the negative effects of role confusion. Literature on role clarification interventions reveal that they are complex interventions seeking discussion to reach agreement between professionals about the expected role activities. However, such interventions have shown several methodological shortcomings. This study aims to implement and evaluate a multi-component program to clarify primary care nurses' role in health promotion. An exploratory clinical trial will help evaluate the preliminary efficacy and understand if an intervention of these characteristics is feasible, if its components are appropriate and / or if it is accepted by the participants. This is a pilot cluster randomized exploratory trial, which corresponds to Phase II of the Medical Research Council (MRC) framework for the development and evaluation of clinical trials in complex interventions. The study will be conducted in the province of Navarra (Spain), in the primary health care service. The study will follow a cluster randomised design with primary care teams (PCT) as sampling units. A PCT consists of a group of family physicians who work in close cooperation with nurses and social workers to offer primary care services to registered individuals in the area. Each cluster will be randomly assigned to one of the two groups, control or intervention. The main reason for using a cluster design is to avoid contamination, which could occur among nurses working in the same PCT. The randomisation of the study groups will be stratified according to the scope of work (rural / urban), to guarantee the representativeness of the different segments of the study population. It has been considered that nurses' activities and the perception they may have about their health promoting role may be conditioned by two factors: the organization and structure of the PCT and the characteristics of the populations they attend. These two factors may vary depending on the team attending rural or urban population, so it will be considered as a possible confusing variable. The control group will continue with their routine.

Official Title
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Clarification of Nurses' Expected Role in Health Promotion: Study Protocol of an Exploratory Clustered Randomised Controlled Trial for the ROLE-AP Program

Conditions
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Role, Nurses

Intervention / Treatment
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* Behavioral: ROLE-AP programme


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: being a primary care nurse in the Navarre health service. have two years of professional experience in primary health care be a nurse attending either adult or pediatric population have signed the consent form for participation in the study Exclusion Criteria: - not planning to be in clinical practice for the whole duration of the study.
Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Interventional Model Description: The study will be conducted in the province of Navarra (Spain), in the primary health care service. The study will follow a cluster randomised design with primary care teams (PCT) as sampling units. A PCT consists of a group of family physicians who work in close cooperation with nurses and social workers to offer primary care services to registered individuals in the area. Each cluster will be randomly assigned to one of the two groups, control or intervention. The main reason for using a cluster design is to avoid contamination, which could occur among nurses working in the same PCT. This is more likely given the particular characteristics of this complex intervention in which masking is not possible. The R software (version 3.3.0) will be used to choose an allocation at random. The randomisation of the study groups will be stratified according to the scope of work (rural / urban), to guarantee the representativeness of the different segments of the study population.
Masking: None (Open Label)


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| No Intervention: Control group<br>None intervention to be administered, they continue their normal routine. | |
| Experimental: Intervention group<br>ROLE-AP is a multifaceted program offered over a month period to participating primary care nurses and includes three interactive workshops. Each workshop will be 4 hours long. | Behavioral: ROLE-AP programme<br>* The intervention group will be split in two groups of 7-8 primary care nurses each. These two groups will receive the ROLE-AP program over a three weeks period. Each workshop will be divided into two sessions of 90-120min. The first workshop focuses on the clarification of health promotion concepts and the discussion of the state of nursing practice in health promotion. Participants will discuss the misalignments between this description of nursing practice and the ideal one portrayed by the Ottawa Charter. The second workshop will allow the presentation of the objectives of the health care organization, showing its alignment with the Ottawa Charter areas of action. In addition, it will present a standardized instrument that reflects expectations about nurses' activities in health promotion that will serve for discussing and realigning participants' expectations on nurses' role in health promotion. The third workshop will continue with the discussion of nurses' expected activities.<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Changes on nurses' agreement on their role using the Spanish version of Nurses' Role in Health Promotion Questionnaire | Nurses will complete the questionnaire at 3 time points. | Baseline (T0), immediately after intervention (T1) and 3 months follow up (T2) | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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Role clarification, Nurses' role, Health promotion, Prevention