The Use of Nurse Practitioners in a General Practice

This two-year study assesses the usefulness and acceptance of nurse practitioners in a private practice in a middle-class neighborhood. Nurses were trained through a combination formal-informal program to perform many activities formerly requiring physicians. Data was gathered before and after the training program demonstrating that significant changes had taken place in the way the physicians and nurses allocated their time. An attitude questionnaire was given to 214 families who used the practice before and after the role change of the nurse. Acceptance among those families who actually utilized the nurse practitioner was very high. The implementation of the program was efficient and inexpensive. Several observations of the program arc not evident in the data and are discussed.