The preferred role of nurses in family physician team

Introduction: Nurses are considered as one of the members of family physician teams, therefore it is important to explain the role of nurses in it. The aim of study was to determination of nurses' roles in the family physician team.

Methods: This research was conducted as a cross sectional descriptive analytical study. The study population was consisted of all the nurses who were working in under the supervision of Semnan University of Medical Sciences. The participants included 150 nurses who were selected via random stratified sampling method. The research instrument was a researcher-made questionnaire.

Results: Of all the participants, 30 persons (20%) were male and the rest were female (80%). The findings of the study reported based on the mean score of five. The collected data indicated that the nurses participating in the study, as a member of family physician team, had a tendency to take part in the following activities: support (4.44), care (4.37), management (4.05), counseling (3.93), prevention (3.81), and education (3.78).

Conclusion: The results of the study showed that the nurses were more interested in playing a role in supporting and caring for patients, rather than participating in education and preventive activities. Since family physician teams must mainly provide community-based preventive services, the authorities should try to enhance the interests and capabilities of nurses to empower them to play a role in preventive and education activities.