Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Background: Nurses form the core of interdisciplinary teams within the primary care setting. In acute care, positive associations between nurse staffing and quality of care have been established. The purpose of this study was to explore associations between nurse staffing and patient health outcomes in the primary care setting. Approach: This study utilized nurse staffing data acquired through a survey of Family Health Teams (FHTs) (n=15) and patient data from the Canadian Primary Care Sentinel Surveillance Network (CPCSSN) in south eastern Ontario to explore relationships between the presence of Registered Nurses (RNs) and Type 2 diabetes outcomes. The patient sample was comprised of individuals with diabetes, between the ages of 18-100, and who had at least 1 primary care encounter between April 1, 2013-March 31, 2014 (n=6673). The diabetes outcomes explored included: hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), fasting plasma glucose (FPG), blood pressure (BP), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and urine albumin creatinine ratio. Results: 86.7% of practices had at least 1 RN. The presence of at least 1 RN in a FHT was associated with increased odds of diabetic patients having diabetic management indicators on-target, including HbA1c, FPG, BP, and LDL-C. Conclusions: Overall, the findings suggest that FHTs utilizing a model of care that incorporates RNs exhibit better diabetic patient outcomes. This study demonstrated the feasibility of linking primary care nurse staffing data acquired through an organizational survey to patient data within the CPCSSN. In addition, this study sets the groundwork for further exploration of organizational attributes and nursing contributions in primary care settings.