A framework for the advanced practice nurse (APN) role was developed in our Canadian Tertiary Care Centre, delineating five domains of advanced nursing practice: clinical practice, consultation, research, education and leadership.
A standard Level B general practice consultation is $55.
Sensitivity analyses was carried out taking costs of intervention equivalent to two family practice consultations per year and 20% of a single family practice consultation per year.
Because the professional is located in the practice, consultation is easy to organise.
A key feature of a good general practice consultation is that it is patient-centred.
Independent variables were a range of patient, trainee, practice, consultation and educational factors.
General practice consultation data were used to provide an objective assessment of morbidities, for comparison.
Research shows that 9.5% of general practice consultations address three problems and 3.3% address four problems 18; these findings might denote the upper limit of problems that can be reasonably addressed during a general practice consultation.
As sensitivity analyses, therefore, we also considered costs of intervention in inactive individuals equivalent to two family practice consultations per year (£70) and 20%% of a family practice consultation per year (£7).
The annual cost of intervention, in the base case, was one family practice consultation per participant year.
