Improving cultural respect in primary care

Cultural sensitivity in rural primary care.

Providing primary care to rural patients requires creativity, resourcefulness, and sensitivity. The NP's education in and exposure to cultural sensitivity can support delivery of care that is both patient-centered and ethnically-focused. Clinicians' knowledge about the cultural heritage of their constituency must include recognition of norms, beliefs, and practices. Knowledge of culture and its...

Improving Care for the Frail in Nova Scotia: An Implementation Evaluation of a Frailty Portal in Primary Care Practice

Background Understanding and addressing the needs of frail patients has been identified as an important strategy by the Nova Scotia Health Authority (NSHA). Primary care (PC) providers are in a key position to aid in the identification of, and response to frailty as part of routine care. Unlike singular chronic conditions such as diabetes and hypertension which garner a disease-based appr...

Improving the Primary Care–Specialty Care Interface

M S JONES PRESENTS TO HER PRIMARY CARE physician (PCP), Dr Sanchez, with symptoms of persistent diarrhea. Using prereferral guidelines posted on his practice’s electronic referral system, he rules out Clostridium difficile, other bacterial and parasitic infections, and celiac disease. He refers her to a gastroenterologist, Dr Lee, for further evaluation and possible colonoscopy. When Ms Jones a...

Improving Obesity Management in Adult Primary Care

Improving Prescribing Practices in Primary Care

I n a new paper in PLoS Medicine , Fretheim and colleagues report the results of the Rational Prescribing in Primary Care (RaPP) trial, a cluster-randomised controlled trial of a multicomponent intervention to improve prescribing of antihypertensive and cholesterol-lowering drugs in primary care [1]. In a second paper, the same authors present their economic evaluation of the intervention [2]. ...