Literature Collection

AIM: To describe the factors influencing clinical integration of self-management support by primary care nurses for people with physical chronic diseases and common mental disorders, as well as strategies for improvement. DESIGN: Thorne's interpretive descriptive qualitative approach. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews lasting from 60 to 90 min were carried out virtually with nurses from Family Medicine Groups and University Family Medicine Groups across the province of Quebec (Canada) from January 2022 to January 2023. Twenty-three primary care nurses were recruited through purposive and snowball sampling from three networks. Iterative deductive and inductive thematic analysis was completed using Valentijn's Rainbow Model of Integrated Care. RESULTS: The study identified several factors influencing integrated self-management support from primary care nurses across integration domains: clinical (knowledge, skills, training and experience; workload; approaches and activities; attitudes and behaviours; clinical tools), professional (interprofessional and nursing roles; collaboration; team composition), normative and functional (culture and organisational mechanisms). Improvement strategies pointed to the necessity of developing training regarding common mental disorders, adapted clinical tools, clinical support and coaching through collaboration and culture change. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that a cultural shift emphasising continuous improvement through targeted training and coaching is essential to enhance integrated self-management support. Identifying factors and improvement strategies will help implement future interventions and tailor current practices. IMPLICATIONS FOR THE PROFESSION AND/OR PATIENT CARE: Identifying barriers and facilitators, along with proposing improvement strategies, will enable the implementation of more effective interventions and the adaptation of care practices to better support self-management. Additionally, it will influence stakeholders to modify the context surrounding integrated self-management support and interprofessional practise. REPORTING METHOD: Consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research (COREQ). PATIENT AND PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION: No patient or public contribution.

BACKGROUND: As health-care demand is growing, our health-care system will require the optimization of the care trajectories. Patients with an alternate level of care (ALC) status could be a target for flow optimization. We aimed to characterize ALC patients and risk factors for ALC status, and to propose an integrated model to analyze the trajectory of ALC patients and discuss solutions to reduce their burden. METHODS: A case-control design was used to compare 60 ALC and 60 non-ALC patients admitted to the geriatric unit of the Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal in 2021, collecting medical and sociodemographic data. Based on our model, univariate statistical analyses were computed to compare groups and identify risk factors for ALC status. RESULTS: ALC patients were less independent (22% performed five to six activities of daily living vs. 43%, p = .03). Both groups were comparable in terms of mobility and neurocognitive disorders. ALC patients were more likely to receive a new diagnosis of a neurocognitive disorder or new behavioural or psychological symptoms (37% vs. 15%, p = .008). Up to 25% of ALC patients were admitted despite presenting no active medical condition (vs. 3% of non-ALC patients, p = .002). CONCLUSIONS: The optimization of the care trajectory of ALC patients is mainly based on pre-hospital and post-hospital factors. A proportion of ALC admissions might be avoidable with additional investment in home care resources and relocation procedures. Fluidity of ALC trajectory may benefit from improved orientation at discharge procedures. Full optimization of ALC trajectories requires a systemic understanding of the health-care system.