title: The nurse specialist as main care-provider for patients with type 2 diabetes in a primary care setting: effects on patient outcomes.
abstract: A solution to safeguard high quality diabetes care may be to allocate care to the nurse specialist. By using a one group pretest-posttest design with additional comparisons, this study evaluated effects on patient outcomes of a shared care model with the diabetes nurse as main care-provider for patients with type 2 diabetes in a primary care setting. The shared care model resulted in an improved glycaemic control, additional consultations and other outcomes being equivalent to diabetes care before introduction, with the general practitioner as main care-provider. Assignment of care for patients with type 2 diabetes to nurse specialists seems to be justified.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Care Studies, University of Maastricht, P.O. Box 616, 6200 MD, Netherlands. b.vrijhoef@zw.unimaas.nl
authors.forename: H J M
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Vrijhoef
authors.forename: J P M
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Diederiks
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Spreeuwenberg
authors.forename: B H R
authors.initials: BH
authors.lastname: Wolffenbuttel
authors.forename: L J G P
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: van Wilderen
mesh_terms: D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000451:nursing* / Q000628:therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D019359:Knowledge; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009720:Nurse Clinicians / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D011320:Primary Health Care; D011788:Quality of Life; D012107:Research Design; D012648:Self Care; D016896:Treatment Outcome