The aim of this study is to describe the rollout of nursing activities during the pilot project’s first 12 months (2019–2021), especially relating to what was initially planned in the nurses’ job description.

To provide more comprehensive services and reinforce primary care, a pilot implementation study assessed the integration of nursing activities into eight general practitioners’ (GPs’) practices. The study evaluated how new types of activities were integrated and rolled out over the first year.

A mixed-methods observational study collected quantitative data on nursing activities and duration and qualitative data via five interviews with nurses and patients and one focus group with six GPs. Investigators combined quantitative and qualitative data in discussions about their results.

New nursing activities were rolled out progressively, especially follow-up activities with chronically ill patients, with a median time dedicated/month of 21h58 (range: 9h25 to 64h50) at six months and 48h43 (range: 11h01 to 59h51) at 12 months. One-off clinical activities are more easily integrated: the median time dedicated/month was 40h01 (range: 13h44 to 74h53) at six months and 40h30 (range: 9h38 to 76h51) at 12 months. Three elements were crucial in the implementation of nursing activities. The nurse’s previous professional experience influenced the scope of activities developed. GPs’ willingness to refer patients to the nurses enabled the latter to carry out follow-up activities with care plan. Lastly, the implementation of nursing activities was also made possible by patients’ acceptance of being cared for by nurse instead of a GP.

Implementation of nursing activities increased progressively, although more slowly for activities with chronically ill patients and within care plans, principally due to the overall change faced by GPs and nurses.

Primary healthcare units (PHCUs) in Austria play a crucial role in providing regionally tailored, high-quality care through interprofessional teams. Barriers, such as limited training and unclear roles, hinder effective interprofessional collaboration (IPC). Additionally, healthcare and social professionals (HCSPs) in primary healthcare (PHC) face a rise in patients with non-communicable diseases and increasing climate-related challenges, underscoring the need for education addressing IPC and sustainability to build resilient healthcare.

This paper presents the protocol of the REALISE study, which aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a didactic concept integrating collaborative, digital, and sustainability skills within multimodal training modules (including simulations).

In this prospective trial, HCSPs working in PHC and students in their final year of education in related professions are recruited to participate in interprofessional training modules, which take place on four days within a month in person and with additional e-learning elements between those days. The modules consist of didactic elements on IPC and sustainability, simulation scenarios with acting patients, and immersive virtual reality scenarios. The primary outcomes assess IPC by utilizing the Teamwork Assessment Scale, the Interprofessional Socialization and Valuing Scale (9a/9b), and the Interprofessional Collaborative Competency Attainment Survey. Secondary outcomes focus on sustainability and environmental awareness, as well as the organization and structure of the training modules.

The findings of this study will demonstrate the effect of proprietary training modules on IPC and will inform on the integration of respective modules into standard curricula and continuing educational programmes at the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences.

The aim of this study was to develop an up-to-date system of Structural Indicators for the Strength of Primary Care (SiSPC) to enable comparisons of primary care systems across countries.

Indicators are needed for international research into the development of primary care and to support countries in monitoring improvements in access, responsiveness and efficiency of their primary care services. International comparisons with use of identical indicators for the strength of primary care offer policymakers opportunities to learn lessons from abroad.

Our point of departure was the Primary Health Care Activity Monitor Europe (PHAMEU), that effectively measured the strength of primary care at the beginning of this century. We went through the following steps: (1) Reduction, refining and tuning of the PHAMEU indicator system (2) comparison with the European Primary Health Care, Impact, Performance and Capacity Tool (PHC-IMPACT) (3) addition of topics from other frameworks (4) identification of topical issues from the literature. The resulting draft indicator system was discussed at meetings and received feedback from experts from 25 countries.

SiSPC consists of three care-related domains: Structure of Primary Care, Systemic Aspects of Facility Management and Systemic Aspects of Care Delivery. SiSPC also contains a domain on the Context of Primary Care. Care processes that vary between care providers, were not included as a domain at the system level.