Abstract
One way in which governments are seeking to improve the efficiency of the health care sector is by redesigning health services to contain labour costs. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of new professional roles on a wide range of health service outcomes and costs.
A systematic literature review was performed by searching in different databases for evaluation papers of new professional roles (published 1985–2013). The PRISMA checklist was used to conduct and report the systematic literature review and the EPHPP-Quality Assessment Tool to assess the quality of the studies.
Forty-one studies of specialist nurses (SNs) and advanced nurse practitioners (ANPs) were selected for data extraction and analysis. The 25 SN studies evaluated most often quality of life (10 studies), clinical outcomes (8), and costs (8). Significant advantages were seen most frequently regarding health care utilization (in 3 of 3 studies), patient information (5 of 6), and patient satisfaction (4 of 6). The 16 ANP studies evaluated most often patient satisfaction (8), clinical outcomes (5), and costs (5). Significant advantages were seen most frequently regarding clinical outcomes (5 of 5), patient information (3 of 4), and patient satisfaction (5 of 8).
Promoting new professional roles may help improve health care delivery and possibly contain costs. Exploring the optimal skill-mix deserves further attention from health care professionals, researchers and policy makers.
A systematic literature review was performed by searching in different databases for evaluation papers of new professional roles (published 1985–2013). The PRISMA checklist was used to conduct and report the systematic literature review and the EPHPP-Quality Assessment Tool to assess the quality of the studies.
Forty-one studies of specialist nurses (SNs) and advanced nurse practitioners (ANPs) were selected for data extraction and analysis. The 25 SN studies evaluated most often quality of life (10 studies), clinical outcomes (8), and costs (8). Significant advantages were seen most frequently regarding health care utilization (in 3 of 3 studies), patient information (5 of 6), and patient satisfaction (4 of 6). The 16 ANP studies evaluated most often patient satisfaction (8), clinical outcomes (5), and costs (5). Significant advantages were seen most frequently regarding clinical outcomes (5 of 5), patient information (3 of 4), and patient satisfaction (5 of 8).
Promoting new professional roles may help improve health care delivery and possibly contain costs. Exploring the optimal skill-mix deserves further attention from health care professionals, researchers and policy makers.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1176-1187 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | Health Policy |
| Volume | 119 |
| Issue number | 9 |
| Early online date | 13 Apr 2015 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Sept 2015 |
Bibliographical note
“The authors wish to thank the European Commission for funding this research programme ‘Health Care Reform: The iMpact on practice, oUtcomes and cost of New ROles for health profeSsionals (MUNROS), under the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7 HEALTH-2012-INNOVATION-1) grant agreement number HEALTH-F3-2012-305467EC. The authors also wish to thank all those who supported and guided this work both within the MUNROS research project team and as external associates. In particular we would like to thank Mathijs Kelder for his valuable contribution in the review process. The authors also wish to thank all the MUNROS research and project partners for their continuing collaboration in this research”.Keywords
- new professional roles
- skill-mix
- health service redesign
- costs
- effects
- impact