The OCEAN WIP-PS Study
Our team is investigating the role and value of general practice nurses (GPNs), nurse practitioners (NPs) and physiotherapists who work in general practice (including Aboriginal Medical Services and Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services), using the Occasions of Care Explained and Analysed (OCEAN) tool.
Background
In the 2022-23 budget, the Australian Government announced significant support to primary care through the ‘Strengthening Medicare’ Program. The Taskforce highlighted the need for coordinated teams of health care professionals working to their full scope of practice to provide continuity of care, including prevention and early intervention.
While research about general practice has predominantly focussed on the work of general practitioners, services in general practice are delivered by a range of health care professionals including GPNs, NPs and allied health professionals. Currently there is no mechanism to comprehensively capture reliable information about the clinical activity of GPNs, NPs and allied health professionals and their contribution to team-based care.
About the study
This innovative three-year project, called OCEAN: examining multidisciplinary general practice team-based care, will use an electronic data collection platform called OCEAN which has been developed by the University of Sydney to investigate the current models of team-based care in Australian general practice, focussing on the roles of GPNs, NPs and physiotherapists.
The purpose of this study is to collect data on the contributions of nursing and allied health professionals in general practice teams, producing valid, reliable information to inform the recommendations of the Strengthening Medicare Taskforce. We will survey GPNs, NPs and physiotherapists to identify their characteristics, scope of practice, clinical and non-clinical activity, and their needs within the current general practice model of care and ways to better support them in fully utilising their scope of practice. This large-scale research project will help establish an important evidence base to inform policy and strengthen team-based care in general practice.
A visual overview of the project is provided below:
The Department of Health and Aged Care has funded the University of Sydney to undertake this work. This project is being conducted as a collaboration between the University of Sydney and the University of Wollongong. While the University of Sydney is working in collaboration with the University of Wollongong, the University of Sydney maintains full contractual obligations and the ownership of the OCEAN tool.
