Abstract:
The growing global burden of heart failure (HF) necessitates the investigation of alternative methods of providing co-ordinated, integrated and client-focused primary care. Currently, the models of nurse-coordinated care demonstrated to be effective in randomized controlled trials are only available to a relative minority of clients and their families with HF. This current gap in service provision could prove fertile ground for the expansion of practice nursing [The Nurse in Family Practice: Practice Nurses and Nurse Practitioners in primary health care. 1988, Scutari Press, London: Impact of rural living on the experience of chronic illness. Australian Journal of Rural Health, 2001. 9: 235¿240]. Aim: This paper aims to review the published literature describing the current and potential role of the practice nurse in HF management in Australia. Methods: Searches of electronic databases, the reference lists of published materials and the internet were conducted using key words including `Australia¿, `practice nurse¿, `office nurse¿, `nurs*¿, `heart failure¿, `cardiac¿ and `chronic illness¿. Inclusion criteria for this review were English language literature; nursing interventions for heart failure (HF) and the role of practice nurses in primary care.
