An ethnographic exploration of the social organisation of general practice nurses' knowledge use: more than 'mindlines'?

Aim: To explore contextual, organisational and educational issues impacting on access to, and application of knowledge to everyday practice by general practice nurses, working in two rural primary-care practices in the UK.

Background: Changes in primary-care healthcare delivery have resulted in substantive changes to practice nurses' roles. Practice nurses have taken on enhanced roles for which they were not prepared for in their initial training, little is known about how they access and apply knowledge.

Methods: Ethnographic methods were used to gather data.

Results: Practice nurses take a blended approach to knowledge use, using elements of evidence-based practice to support professional judgement. This is subject to several contextual influences, organisational, educational and from individual patients. Tensions exist between the position in which general practice nurses are situated and the nature in which knowledge is disseminated and used in primary care. Whilst examples of clinical mindlines were evident, these differed to those previously observed in general practitioners, practice nurses did not always have the mindline on which to draw and used an approach to practice that resembled 'bricoleur activity'.

Conclusions: The way in which general practice is structured results in variance in organisational structural arrangements for sharing and disseminating of knowledge. Despite a supportive organisational culture towards knowledge sharing, the position in which practice nurses are situated limits opportunities for discussion and reformulation of knowledge. Practice nurses are, however, prepared to adapt knowledge to meet the needs of individual patients.