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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Extended Roles of Non‐physician Health Professionals
and Innovative Models of Care within Europe: Results
from a Web‐based Survey
Tanja Stamm PhD, MSc, MBA1* & Jackie Hill PhD, MPhil (Dist), RN, FRCN2
1
 Department of Internal Medicine III, Division of Rheumatology, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria, and FH Campus Wien,
Department of Health, Division of Occupational Therapy, University of Applied Sciences, Vienna, Austria
2
 Academic and Clinical Unit for Musculoskeletal Nursing (ACUMeN), Academic Section of Musculoskeletal Disease, Leeds Institute of
Molecular Medicine, Leeds, UK




Abstract
Background and objective. Due to the increasing prevalence of rheumatic diseases, extended roles of non‐physician
health professionals and innovative models of care may be important options in rheumatology in the future. Extended
roles have been pioneered in the UK, Canada, USA and Australia and been found to be effective and safe. However,
few data are available about mainland Europe, so the aim of this study was to explore the current status of the extended
roles undertaken by health professionals within Europe, and the corresponding models of care used.
Methods. Non‐physician health professionals from various European countries were asked to complete a web‐
based survey using convenience and snowball sampling techniques. Data analysis involved calculating descriptive
statistics and frequencies based on the countries where the participants currently worked.
Results. Of the 479 health professionals who filled in the survey, 430 (92%) indicated that they were performing
extended roles. Considerable differences between the 27 participating countries existed, in terms of which extended
roles and which innovative models of care were being used. Barriers to performing extended roles were cited as the
attitude of rheumatologists in all but eight countries, while attitudes of patients were less common barriers. Lack of
knowledge, education and educational opportunities were also experienced in several countries.
Conclusion. The present study produced the first data on extended roles for non‐physician health professionals
and corresponding innovative models of care in rheumatology within Europe. We recommend increasing
educational opportunities, as well as developing strategies to limit the barriers experienced. Copyright © 2011 John
Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Keywords
Extended roles; occupational therapy; physical therapy; nursing; social work; psychology; rheumatology health professionals


*Correspondence
Tanja Stamm, Department of Internal Medicine III, Division of Rheumatology, Medical University of Vienna, Währinger Gürtel 18‐20, 1090
Vienna, Austria.
Email: tanja.stamm@meduniwien.ac.at


Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/msc.201




Introduction                                                          osteoarthritis (OA) affects 60–70% of the population
The prevalence of rheumatic diseases increases with age               above the age of 65 years (Dahaghin et al., 2005a, b;
and with the increasing longevity of the population                   Kraus, 1997). At the present time, almost 80% of the
(World Health Organization, 2004). For example,                       population can expect to live through most of their


Musculoskelet. Care (2011) © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Extended Roles of Health Professionals in Europe                                                               Stamm and Hill


seventh decade of life, so the impact of OA is likely to      extended roles and to develop recommendations/
increase even further in future (Kraus, 1997). Rheumatic      guidelines for European HPs wishing to undertake
diseases affect not only body functions and structures,       extended roles based on the survey results.
but also activities and the societal participation of the
individual (Stamm et al., 2009). Given the ever‐increasing
                                                              Methods
number of people affected by rheumatic diseases, as well
as their various needs, innovative models of care, such as    Design
implementing extended roles for multidisciplinary, non‐       A 10‐minute, anonymous survey with a web‐based ques-
physician health professionals (HPs), may be an               tionnaire was conducted. The survey was available for one
important option in future rheumatology care. Extended        month (April 2010), with an extension period of 15 days.
roles can be defined as tasks which have not been
commonly undertaken by HPs, or a certain group of HPs,
                                                              Participants
to date and which require at least additional training or
education in addition to basic professional training.         Sampling followed convenience and snowball sampling
   Extended roles for HPs in rheumatology at present          techniques. HPs from different disciplines, including
include consultant roles (defined as expert practice,          nurses, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, psy-
leadership, education and research) (Humphreys et al.,        chologists and social workers, working in rheumatology,
2007), advanced clinical tasks specifically undertaken by      from as many countries as possible, were invited to
nurses, such as examining the musculoskeletal system,         participate and contacted via regular and co‐opted
assessing disease status, managing symptoms, recom-           members of the European League Against Rheumatism
mending changes to or prescribing drug treatment and          (EULAR) Standing Committee for Health Professionals
making referrals to other HPs (Hill et al., 2009; Miles       in Rheumatology, the EULAR member organizations,
et al., 2006), administering intra‐articular injections       individuals (if no member organization existed in a
(Meadows and Sheehan, 2005) and managing patient              certain country) and participants of the EULAR HP
advice lines (McCabe et al., 2009; Thwaites, 2004).           Teach‐the‐Teachers courses. In addition, each health
Further examples include triage recommendations for           professional was asked to share the web link for this
patients with OA carried out by physiotherapists              survey with colleagues and HPs from other countries
(MacKay et al., 2009) and triage by occupational therapists   known to work in rheumatology.
of whether or not patients require hospital admission in
emergency care settings (Cusick et al., 2009).                Data gathering
   Several studies have found extended HPs roles to be
                                                              The questionnaire was derived from the literature on the
effective and safe (Hill, 1986; Hill et al., 1994, 2009;
                                                              extended roles of HPs (Hill et al., 2009; Humphreys et al.,
MacKay et al., 2009; Ryan et al., 2006). The implemen-
                                                              2007). Pilot testing of the questionnaire was undertaken
tation of extended roles for HPs commonly occurs in
                                                              to ensure the relevance of the questions for the different
parallel with the development of innovative models of care,
                                                              countries. The questionnaire was translated from English
such as internet‐based care, telephone helplines and triage
                                                              into the following 11 languages: Czech, Estonian,
models to decrease the number of patients on waiting lists.
                                                              Finnish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Lithuanian,
   The literature demonstrates that extended roles for
                                                              Polish, Portuguese and Spanish. These languages were
HPs and corresponding innovative models of care have
                                                              chosen, as we expected fewer health professionals of these
been pioneered in the UK, Canada, USA and Australia
                                                              nationalities to be familiar with English.
(Cusick et al., 2009; Hill et al., 2009; Humphreys et al.,
2007). However, there are no data on the current
                                                              Data analysis
situation in mainland Europe and no common
European perspective concerning the situation of HPs          Data were transferred electronically from the web‐
performing extended roles. Therefore, the aims of this        based questionnaire and corresponding database
study were to explore the current status of extended          (http://www.surveymonkey.com) to a Microsoft Excel
roles undertaken by HPs within Europe, to gain an             spreadsheet. Data analysis involved calculating descrip-
overview of the different models of care and clinical         tive statistics and frequencies based on the countries
and research settings in which HPs undertake these            where the participants currently worked.

                                                                         Musculoskelet. Care (2011) © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Stamm and Hill                                                                                             Extended Roles of Health Professionals in Europe


Results                                                                                       physiotherapists and 45 (9%) occupational thera-
                                                                                              pists, these three groups comprised 92% of the
Participants
                                                                                              cohort. The remaining 8% were psychologists,
A total of 479 HPs from 27 countries participated in                                          podiatrists, social workers and other professionals,
the survey (Figure 1); their demographic data are                                             such as clinical pharmacists, medical secretaries and
shown in Table 1. Sixty‐one per cent of the all                                               clinical study coordinators. No nutritionists com-
participants were nurses and, with the 103 (22%)                                              pleted the survey.


                                                                       Number of participants

          United Kingdom                                                                                                                   120
                   Turkey        2
              Switzerland                                                                    62
                  Sweden                      8
                    Spain                                      27
                 Slovenia                 6
                 Slovakia                5
                   Serbia                              18
                 Romania         1
                 Portugal                                       28
                   Poland                5
                  Norway                                                  40
              Netherlands                     9
                    Malta            3
              Luxembourg         1
                 Lithuania                        12
                    Latvia       1
                   Ireland       1
                  Greece         1
                   France         2
                  Finland                               19
                  Estonia                                        29
                 Denmark             3
           Czech Republic                                                   41
                   Cyprus             4
                  Belgium                         11
                   Austria                    8
                             0                         20              40               60               80             100              120         140


Figure 1 Distribution of the survey participants by country. The bars indicate the total number of participants per country. Countries are
listed from bottom to top in alphabetical order



Table 1. Demographic data of the survey participants

                                     Total                     Age group (in years)               Clinical experience (in years)     Research experience (in years)

                                                       20–30      31–40     41–50     Over    0–1       2–10     11–20 More        0–1     2–10    11–20     More
                                                                                       50                             than 20                               than 20

Nurse                        294(61%)                    34         66        104   90   13              116      106   49     108  133             27         5
Occupational therapist        45 (9%)                     7         10         13   15    2               21       11   11      27   10              4         2
Psychologist                  13 (3%)                     5          6          2    –    4                4        5    –       7    4              2         –
Podiatrist                     6 (1%)                     2          2          1    1     –               5        –    1       4    2              –         –
Physiotherapist              103 (22%)                   15         30         35   23    2               36       30   34      62   26              2         3
Social worker                  5 (1%)                     –          1         –     4    1                1        3    –       3    1              1         –
Other                         13 (3%)                     3          4          2    3    3                4        4    2       4    8              –         1
Total                        479                         63        115       155   136   25              187      159   97     215  184             36        11
                                                       (13%)     (24%)      (32%) (28%) (5%)            (39%)    (33%) (20%) (45%) (38%)           (8%)      (2%)



Musculoskelet. Care (2011) © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Table 2. Extended roles performed by health professionals within Europe. If one participant in a certain country marked a specific task, this is marked with a ■ in the table in the column relating to this
                                                            country

                                                            If you are performing extended
                                                               roles in the rheumatology
                                                               setting in which you are
                                                               currently working, please
                                                               indicate these by ticking the                             Czech
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Extended Roles of Health Professionals in Europe




                                                               boxes below.                      Austria Belgium Cyprus Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Greece Ireland Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Malta Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal Romania Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey UK

                                                            Work as a consultant/                  ■       ■       ■       ■        ■       ■       ■              ■                     ■                            ■        ■               ■       ■       ■               ■     ■       ■         ■            ■
                                                               advanced practitioner
                                                            Manage your own caseload               ■       ■               ■        ■       ■       ■      ■              ■      ■       ■                  ■         ■        ■      ■        ■       ■       ■                     ■       ■         ■            ■
                                                               independently
                                                            Triage                                 ■       ■                                ■       ■              ■                     ■                            ■        ■      ■        ■               ■                     ■       ■         ■       ■    ■
                                                            Assess disease status and              ■       ■       ■       ■        ■       ■       ■      ■       ■             ■       ■          ■       ■         ■        ■      ■        ■       ■       ■               ■     ■       ■         ■            ■
                                                               activity
                                                            Examine the musculoskeletal            ■       ■       ■       ■                ■       ■              ■                     ■                  ■         ■        ■      ■        ■               ■               ■     ■       ■         ■       ■    ■
                                                               system
                                                            Formulate and carry out a                              ■       ■        ■       ■       ■              ■                     ■                            ■        ■      ■        ■       ■                       ■     ■       ■         ■       ■    ■
                                                               plan of disease management
                                                            Manage disease symptoms                        ■       ■       ■        ■       ■       ■      ■              ■              ■                  ■         ■        ■      ■        ■               ■               ■     ■       ■         ■            ■
                                                            Recommend changes of drug                              ■                        ■       ■              ■                                        ■         ■        ■               ■                               ■     ■                 ■            ■
                                                               treatment
                                                            Prescribe medications by                               ■                        ■       ■                                                                 ■        ■                                                     ■                              ■
                                                               protocols
                                                            Prescribe medications                                  ■                        ■                      ■                                                                                                                                                ■
                                                               independently
                                                            Give intra‐articular injections                        ■                                ■              ■                                                  ■        ■                                                                                    ■
                                                            Making referrals to other                      ■       ■       ■        ■       ■       ■      ■       ■      ■              ■                  ■         ■        ■      ■        ■       ■       ■               ■     ■       ■         ■            ■
                                                               health professionals
                                                            Make referrals to physicians, e.g.             ■       ■       ■                ■       ■              ■                     ■                            ■        ■               ■               ■                     ■       ■         ■            ■
                                                               orthopaedic surgeon
                                                            Admit patients to hospital                     ■       ■                        ■       ■              ■                                                  ■        ■                               ■                                                    ■
                                                               wards




Musculoskelet. Care (2011) © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Stamm and Hill
Discharge patients from your          ■   ■                   ■      ■            ■           ■                       ■        ■       ■           ■   ■   ■       ■   ■   ■   ■       ■
                                                               care
                                                            Recommendations for further       ■   ■   ■    ■              ■      ■     ■            ■            ■                         ■       ■           ■   ■   ■       ■   ■   ■   ■       ■
                                                               and other treatment options
                                                            Address psychological                 ■   ■    ■              ■      ■     ■      ■     ■     ■      ■         ■      ■        ■       ■           ■   ■   ■       ■   ■   ■   ■       ■
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Stamm and Hill




                                                               problems
                                                            Address social problems               ■   ■    ■       ■      ■      ■     ■      ■     ■     ■      ■         ■      ■        ■       ■           ■   ■   ■       ■   ■   ■   ■       ■
                                                            Order investigations such as          ■   ■    ■       ■      ■      ■            ■                                   ■        ■       ■                               ■   ■   ■       ■
                                                               X‐rays and blood tests
                                                            Assess the patients’ knowledge        ■   ■    ■       ■      ■      ■     ■            ■     ■      ■                ■        ■       ■       ■   ■   ■   ■   ■   ■   ■   ■   ■       ■
                                                               of their disease
                                                            Lead/teach patient education      ■   ■   ■    ■              ■      ■            ■     ■     ■      ■                ■        ■       ■       ■   ■   ■   ■   ■   ■   ■   ■   ■   ■   ■
                                                               courses
                                                            Design patient education              ■   ■    ■       ■      ■      ■            ■     ■     ■      ■         ■      ■        ■       ■       ■   ■   ■   ■   ■   ■   ■   ■   ■   ■   ■
                                                               materials
                                                            Manage patient telephone              ■                ■      ■      ■                                                ■        ■       ■               ■   ■       ■   ■   ■   ■       ■




Musculoskelet. Care (2011) © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
                                                               advice lines
                                                            Supervise health professionals    ■   ■   ■    ■              ■            ■                                                   ■       ■           ■       ■       ■   ■   ■   ■       ■
                                                               from different disciplines,
                                                               including physicians
                                                               and medical students
                                                            Teach health professionals from   ■   ■        ■              ■      ■     ■      ■     ■                             ■        ■       ■       ■   ■   ■   ■   ■   ■   ■   ■   ■       ■
                                                               different disciplines,
                                                               including physicians and
                                                               medical students
                                                            Manage clinical trials                ■        ■              ■      ■            ■                            ■      ■        ■       ■       ■   ■       ■   ■   ■   ■   ■   ■       ■
                                                            Work as a research assistant      ■   ■        ■       ■                                             ■                ■        ■       ■       ■   ■   ■   ■   ■   ■   ■   ■   ■       ■
                                                            Lead clinical trials/research     ■   ■        ■              ■                                                       ■        ■       ■                   ■       ■   ■   ■   ■       ■
                                                            Undertake independent             ■   ■   ■    ■              ■                   ■                                   ■        ■       ■       ■   ■       ■           ■   ■   ■   ■   ■
                                                               research
                                                            Assessment other than typical     ■   ■        ■              ■            ■                                          ■                ■                               ■       ■       ■
                                                               for your profession


                                                            If one participant in a certain country marked a specific task, this is marked with a ■ in the table in the column relating to this country.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Extended Roles of Health Professionals in Europe
Table 3. Innovative models of care and research settings in which the survey participants worked

                                                            If you do work in an extended role,
                                                               please specify the model of care in
                                                               which you are currently performing
                                                               the extended roles you identified in                                 Czech
                                                               the previous question.                      Austria Belgium Cyprus Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Greece Ireland Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Malta Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal Romania Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey UK

                                                            Traditional medical setting                              ■               ■                 ■      ■                                    ■          ■       ■         ■        ■       ■       ■               ■      ■        ■      ■     ■          ■            ■
                                                               (physician prescribes)
                                                            Multi/interdisciplinary rheumatology/             ■      ■               ■                 ■      ■       ■             ■                                 ■         ■        ■       ■                       ■               ■      ■     ■          ■            ■
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Extended Roles of Health Professionals in Europe




                                                               rehabilitation team, with physician
                                                               being the team leader
                                                            Multi/interdisciplinary rheumatology/                                                      ■      ■                                    ■                            ■        ■                               ■                      ■     ■          ■            ■
                                                               rehabilitation team, with non‐physicians
                                                               as the team leader
                                                            Academic/research setting, with the                      ■               ■                 ■      ■                                               ■       ■         ■        ■       ■       ■               ■      ■               ■     ■          ■            ■
                                                               physician as the team leader
                                                            Academic/research setting with different          ■                               ■               ■                                    ■                            ■        ■                               ■                            ■          ■            ■
                                                               professionals, with non‐physicians as the
                                                               team leader
                                                            Community/primary care setting, with the                 ■               ■        ■        ■      ■                                                                          ■                               ■                      ■                ■            ■
                                                               physician as the team leader
                                                            Community/primary care setting, with                                                       ■              ■                                                                  ■                               ■                      ■                             ■
                                                               non‐physicians as the team leader
                                                            Telephone helpline                                       ■       ■       ■        ■        ■      ■       ■                                               ■         ■        ■                               ■                      ■     ■          ■            ■
                                                            Internet‐based helpline                                                           ■                       ■                                                         ■                                                               ■                             ■
                                                            Internet‐based care                                                                                                                                                 ■                        ■                                      ■
                                                            Clinic led by nurse or other health                      ■               ■        ■        ■                                           ■                  ■         ■        ■                               ■               ■      ■     ■          ■            ■
                                                               professional
                                                            Private practice                                                 ■       ■                 ■                                                                                         ■       ■                                      ■     ■          ■       ■    ■


                                                            If one participant in a certain country marked a specific task, this is marked with a ■ in the table in the column relating to this country.




Musculoskelet. Care (2011) © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Stamm and Hill
Stamm and Hill




                                                            Table 4. Barriers experienced by health professionals that keep them from performing extended roles in a certain country

                                                            Whether or not you work in extended
                                                               roles, are there any barriers that keep
                                                               you or your colleagues from performing                           Czech
                                                               extended roles in your centre?            Austria Belgium Cyprus Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Greece Ireland Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Malta Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal Romania Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey UK




Musculoskelet. Care (2011) © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
                                                            Lack of knowledge                                      ■       ■       ■                 ■      ■                                    ■          ■                 ■        ■               ■               ■               ■     ■      ■          ■            ■
                                                            Lack of education                               ■      ■       ■       ■                 ■      ■                                                                 ■        ■       ■       ■               ■               ■     ■      ■          ■            ■
                                                            Lack of educational opportunities               ■      ■       ■       ■                 ■      ■                     ■              ■                  ■         ■        ■       ■       ■               ■               ■     ■      ■          ■            ■
                                                            Legal constraints                               ■      ■       ■       ■                 ■      ■       ■                            ■                  ■         ■        ■       ■       ■                      ■        ■     ■      ■          ■            ■
                                                            Attitude of rheumatologists                     ■      ■       ■       ■                 ■      ■                                    ■                  ■         ■        ■       ■       ■               ■      ■        ■     ■      ■          ■            ■
                                                            Attitude of colleagues or other                 ■      ■               ■                 ■      ■                                    ■          ■                          ■               ■               ■               ■     ■      ■          ■            ■
                                                               health professionals
                                                            Attitude of patients                                           ■       ■                 ■                                           ■                            ■                        ■                               ■                       ■            ■
                                                            Lack of support from colleagues                 ■              ■       ■                 ■      ■                                                       ■                  ■       ■       ■               ■               ■     ■                 ■            ■
                                                            Lack of information during basic                       ■               ■                 ■                                           ■                            ■        ■       ■       ■                               ■     ■                 ■            ■
                                                               training
                                                            Lack of role models                             ■      ■       ■       ■                 ■      ■                                    ■          ■       ■         ■        ■       ■       ■                               ■     ■      ■          ■            ■
                                                            Lack of time                                           ■       ■       ■                 ■      ■                     ■              ■                            ■        ■               ■               ■      ■        ■     ■      ■          ■            ■
                                                            Lack of funding                                 ■      ■       ■       ■                 ■      ■       ■             ■                         ■       ■         ■        ■       ■       ■               ■      ■        ■     ■      ■          ■            ■
                                                            No need for extended roles                      ■                                        ■                                                                                 ■       ■                                                               ■


                                                            If one participant in a certain country marked a specific task, this is marked with a ■ in the table in the column relating to this country.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Extended Roles of Health Professionals in Europe
Extended Roles of Health Professionals in Europe                                                             Stamm and Hill


Status of performance of extended roles                     Advantages of performing extended roles
in Europe
                                                            An open question inviting participants to cite the
In the survey, 430 (90%) HPs said that they were            potential advantages of performing extended roles was
currently performing extended roles. The performance        answered by 272 (57%) participants. Their responses
of extended roles in the 27 responding countries is
                                                            included three main areas: (i) advantages for the
described in Table 2. The only country in which all
                                                            patient (e.g. the provision of more holistic care,
extended roles described in the survey were performed
                                                            seamless care, a multidisciplinary perspective in care,
by HPs was the UK. The tasks ‘design patient
education materials’ (all countries, but two), ‘assess      easier and timely access to care); (ii) advantages for the
disease status and activity’ and ‘lead/teach patient        healthcare system/institution (e.g. more cost‐effective
education courses’ (all countries, but three) were those    care due to shorter access time and fewer professionals
most frequently marked as being performed by HPs in         involved); and (iii) advantages for the professionals
all responding countries.                                   who performed extended roles (e.g. more challenging
   Educational courses were the most important              workload, increased self‐confidence, self‐development
additional training requested to fulfil the extended         and knowledge, as well as career progression).
roles (42% of all participants), followed by informal
training in the workplace (32%) and formal training in      Discussion
the workplace (28%). Seventy‐three (15%) participants
                                                            This was the first survey of its kind, focusing on the
with a Masters degree and 13 (3%) with a PhD degree
                                                            extended roles of HPs and corresponding innovative
thought that their degree was necessary for performing
                                                            models of care in rheumatology within Europe. The
extended roles.
                                                            data collected have enabled a comparison to be made
                                                            between different countries. Ninety per cent of HPs
Models of care
                                                            were performing extended roles, with the three
Innovative models of care and research settings (e.g.       commonest activities including design patient educa-
with non‐physicians as leaders, and telephone‐ or           tion materials, assess disease status and activity, and
internet‐based care) were used in all countries             lead/teach patient education courses. No HPs from
(Table 3), except for Greece, Ireland, Latvia, Romania      Germany completed the survey and all those who
and Turkey.                                                 completed the survey from Italy were physicians (these
                                                            datasets were deleted). In order to establish equal
Barriers experienced by HPs to keep them                    opportunities for patients with rheumatic diseases
from performing extended roles                              within Europe, such as access to care and treatment,
                                                            we suggest that innovative models of care, together
An overview of the barriers experienced by HPs in           with extended roles for HPs, should be introduced and
regard to performing extended roles is shown in             promoted in all European countries.
Table 4. A considerable number of HPs (249; 53%)               Several HPs in our survey indicated that they needed
indicated that they had experienced barriers. In Estonia    additional training to perform extended roles. Educa-
and Switzerland, all of the barriers described in the       tional courses were the most often sought additional
questionnaire had been experienced. Legal constraints       training. It is therefore essential to introduce educa-
had been experienced in all but seven countries and         tional courses, such as the EULAR Teach‐the‐Teachers
most often been experienced in Austria (by 63% of the       course, to HPs in countries where extended roles and
participants), Switzerland (55%) and Portugal (43%),        innovative models of care are rarely used. In addition,
compared with just 9% of participants in the UK.            enabling HPs to achieve higher qualifications may
   Interestingly, the attitudes of rheumatologists had      influence whether they engage in extended roles and
been experienced as barriers to performing extended         the introduction of innovative models of care.
roles in all but eight countries, while the attitudes of       HPs throughout Europe experienced barriers to
patients were cited as being a barrier in nine countries.   performing extended roles, so the use of innovative
Lack of knowledge, education and educational oppor-         models of care may be limited. The main barriers
tunities were also perceived as barriers in several         recorded included legal constraints, the attitudes of
countries.                                                  rheumatologists and patients, knowledge and educational

                                                                       Musculoskelet. Care (2011) © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Stamm and Hill                                                            Extended Roles of Health Professionals in Europe


opportunities. The German‐speaking region of Europe,           Dahaghin S, Bierma‐Zeinstra SM, Reijman M, Pols HA,
particularly Austria, is an area where legal constraints          Hazes JM, Koes BW (2005b). Prevalence and determi-
might prevent HPs from performing extended roles and              nants of one month hand pain and hand related
this could have been the reason why innovative models of          disability in the elderly (Rotterdam study). Annals of
                                                                  the Rheumatic Diseases 64: 99–104.
care were also hardly used there.
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                                                                  nursing clinic. Nursing Times 82: 42–3.
depend on the professional and educational status of
                                                               Hill J, Bird HA, Harmer R, Wright V, Lawton C (1994). An
non‐physician HPs in a certain country. Innovative                evaluation of the effectiveness, safety and acceptability of a
models of care include multi/interdisciplinary teams in           nurse practitioner in a rheumatology outpatient clinic.
which all participating HPs have an equal professional            British Journal of Rheumatology 33: 283–8.
status, so that either a physician or a non‐physician can      Hill J, Lewis M, Bird H (2009). Do OA patients gain
be the team leader, compared with traditional settings,           additional benefit from care from a clinical nurse
in which always physicians were/are the team leaders.             specialist? A randomized clinical trial. Rheumatology
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ways – for example, for lobbying for extended roles            Humphreys A, Johnson S, Richardson J, Stenhouse E,
in those countries in which this does not currently               Watkins M (2007). A systematic review and meta‐
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occur, using the inter‐country comparisons. Comparing
                                                                  allied health professional consultants. Journal of Clinical
European with US data might be an interesting future
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                                                               Kraus VB (1997). Pathogenesis and treatment of osteoar-
in terms of the different social and healthcare systems.          thritis. The Medical Clinics of North America 81: 85–112.
Starting a common world‐wide discussion on the                 MacKay C, Davis AM, Mahomed N, Badley EM (2009).
extended roles of non‐physician HPs may enable HPs                Expanding roles in orthopaedic care: A comparison of
to extend their current roles in countries where this is not      physiotherapist and orthopaedic surgeon recommenda-
yet common practice. Further, educational needs could             tions for triage. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical
be identified in several countries, as well as barriers which      Practice 15: 178–83.
could be addressed within international organizations          McCabe C, McDowell J, Cushnaghan J, Butts S, Hewlett S
such as EULAR.                                                    (2009). Rheumatology telephone helplines: An activity
                                                                  analysis. Rheumatology 39: 1390–5.
                                                               Meadows A, Sheehan NJ (2005). Prescribing and injecting:
Acknowledgements
                                                                  The expanding role of the rheumatology nurse.
We would like to thank all participants of the survey, the        Musculoskeletal Care 3: 176–8.
translators Elzbieta Bobiatynska, Walter Grassi, Jana          Miles K, Seitio O, McGilvray M (2006). Nurse prescribing
Korandova, Katti Korve, Marja‐Leena Kukkurainen,                  in low‐resource settings: Professional considerations.
Maria Matheou, Serge Perrot, Ruta Sargautyte, Pereira             International Nursing Review 53: 290–6.
de Silva and Jenny de la Torre, who translated the survey      Ryan S, Hassell AB, Lewis M, Farrell A (2006). Impact of a
                                                                  rheumatology expert nurse on the wellbeing of patients
into the different languages, and the EULAR secretariat
                                                                  attending a drug monitoring clinic. Journal of Advanced
(Anja Schönbächler and Caroline Pasche) for their help
                                                                  Nursing 53: 277–86.
and support in the present project, and EULAR for partly
                                                               Stamm T, Van der Giesen F, Thorstensson C, Steen E,
funding this project.                                             Birrell F, Bauernfeind B, Marshall N, Prodinger B,
                                                                  Machold K, Smolen J, Kloppenburg M (2009). Patient
REFERENCES                                                        perspective of hand osteoarthritis in relation to
                                                                  concepts covered by instruments measuring function-
Cusick A, Johnson L, Bissett M (2009). Occupational
                                                                  ing: A qualitative European multicentre study. Annals
  therapy in emergency departments: Australian practice.
                                                                  of the Rheumatic Diseases 68: 1453–60.
  Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice 15: 257–65.
                                                               Thwaites C (2004). Rheumatology telephone advice lines.
Dahaghin S, Bierma‐Zeinstra SM, Ginai AZ, Pols HA,
                                                                  Musculoskeletal Care 2: 120–6.
  Hazes JM, Koes BW (2005a). Prevalence and pattern of
                                                               World Health Organization (2004). The World Health
  radiographic hand osteoarthritis and association with
                                                                  Report 2004. Available at http://www.who.int/whr/
  pain and disability (the Rotterdam study). Annals of the
                                                                  2004/en/ (Accessed 20 August 2010).
  Rheumatic Diseases 64: 682–7.



Musculoskelet. Care (2011) © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Extended roles

  • 1. RESEARCH ARTICLE Extended Roles of Non‐physician Health Professionals and Innovative Models of Care within Europe: Results from a Web‐based Survey Tanja Stamm PhD, MSc, MBA1* & Jackie Hill PhD, MPhil (Dist), RN, FRCN2 1 Department of Internal Medicine III, Division of Rheumatology, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria, and FH Campus Wien, Department of Health, Division of Occupational Therapy, University of Applied Sciences, Vienna, Austria 2 Academic and Clinical Unit for Musculoskeletal Nursing (ACUMeN), Academic Section of Musculoskeletal Disease, Leeds Institute of Molecular Medicine, Leeds, UK Abstract Background and objective. Due to the increasing prevalence of rheumatic diseases, extended roles of non‐physician health professionals and innovative models of care may be important options in rheumatology in the future. Extended roles have been pioneered in the UK, Canada, USA and Australia and been found to be effective and safe. However, few data are available about mainland Europe, so the aim of this study was to explore the current status of the extended roles undertaken by health professionals within Europe, and the corresponding models of care used. Methods. Non‐physician health professionals from various European countries were asked to complete a web‐ based survey using convenience and snowball sampling techniques. Data analysis involved calculating descriptive statistics and frequencies based on the countries where the participants currently worked. Results. Of the 479 health professionals who filled in the survey, 430 (92%) indicated that they were performing extended roles. Considerable differences between the 27 participating countries existed, in terms of which extended roles and which innovative models of care were being used. Barriers to performing extended roles were cited as the attitude of rheumatologists in all but eight countries, while attitudes of patients were less common barriers. Lack of knowledge, education and educational opportunities were also experienced in several countries. Conclusion. The present study produced the first data on extended roles for non‐physician health professionals and corresponding innovative models of care in rheumatology within Europe. We recommend increasing educational opportunities, as well as developing strategies to limit the barriers experienced. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Keywords Extended roles; occupational therapy; physical therapy; nursing; social work; psychology; rheumatology health professionals *Correspondence Tanja Stamm, Department of Internal Medicine III, Division of Rheumatology, Medical University of Vienna, Währinger Gürtel 18‐20, 1090 Vienna, Austria. Email: tanja.stamm@meduniwien.ac.at Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/msc.201 Introduction osteoarthritis (OA) affects 60–70% of the population The prevalence of rheumatic diseases increases with age above the age of 65 years (Dahaghin et al., 2005a, b; and with the increasing longevity of the population Kraus, 1997). At the present time, almost 80% of the (World Health Organization, 2004). For example, population can expect to live through most of their Musculoskelet. Care (2011) © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
  • 2. Extended Roles of Health Professionals in Europe Stamm and Hill seventh decade of life, so the impact of OA is likely to extended roles and to develop recommendations/ increase even further in future (Kraus, 1997). Rheumatic guidelines for European HPs wishing to undertake diseases affect not only body functions and structures, extended roles based on the survey results. but also activities and the societal participation of the individual (Stamm et al., 2009). Given the ever‐increasing Methods number of people affected by rheumatic diseases, as well as their various needs, innovative models of care, such as Design implementing extended roles for multidisciplinary, non‐ A 10‐minute, anonymous survey with a web‐based ques- physician health professionals (HPs), may be an tionnaire was conducted. The survey was available for one important option in future rheumatology care. Extended month (April 2010), with an extension period of 15 days. roles can be defined as tasks which have not been commonly undertaken by HPs, or a certain group of HPs, Participants to date and which require at least additional training or education in addition to basic professional training. Sampling followed convenience and snowball sampling Extended roles for HPs in rheumatology at present techniques. HPs from different disciplines, including include consultant roles (defined as expert practice, nurses, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, psy- leadership, education and research) (Humphreys et al., chologists and social workers, working in rheumatology, 2007), advanced clinical tasks specifically undertaken by from as many countries as possible, were invited to nurses, such as examining the musculoskeletal system, participate and contacted via regular and co‐opted assessing disease status, managing symptoms, recom- members of the European League Against Rheumatism mending changes to or prescribing drug treatment and (EULAR) Standing Committee for Health Professionals making referrals to other HPs (Hill et al., 2009; Miles in Rheumatology, the EULAR member organizations, et al., 2006), administering intra‐articular injections individuals (if no member organization existed in a (Meadows and Sheehan, 2005) and managing patient certain country) and participants of the EULAR HP advice lines (McCabe et al., 2009; Thwaites, 2004). Teach‐the‐Teachers courses. In addition, each health Further examples include triage recommendations for professional was asked to share the web link for this patients with OA carried out by physiotherapists survey with colleagues and HPs from other countries (MacKay et al., 2009) and triage by occupational therapists known to work in rheumatology. of whether or not patients require hospital admission in emergency care settings (Cusick et al., 2009). Data gathering Several studies have found extended HPs roles to be The questionnaire was derived from the literature on the effective and safe (Hill, 1986; Hill et al., 1994, 2009; extended roles of HPs (Hill et al., 2009; Humphreys et al., MacKay et al., 2009; Ryan et al., 2006). The implemen- 2007). Pilot testing of the questionnaire was undertaken tation of extended roles for HPs commonly occurs in to ensure the relevance of the questions for the different parallel with the development of innovative models of care, countries. The questionnaire was translated from English such as internet‐based care, telephone helplines and triage into the following 11 languages: Czech, Estonian, models to decrease the number of patients on waiting lists. Finnish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Lithuanian, The literature demonstrates that extended roles for Polish, Portuguese and Spanish. These languages were HPs and corresponding innovative models of care have chosen, as we expected fewer health professionals of these been pioneered in the UK, Canada, USA and Australia nationalities to be familiar with English. (Cusick et al., 2009; Hill et al., 2009; Humphreys et al., 2007). However, there are no data on the current Data analysis situation in mainland Europe and no common European perspective concerning the situation of HPs Data were transferred electronically from the web‐ performing extended roles. Therefore, the aims of this based questionnaire and corresponding database study were to explore the current status of extended (http://www.surveymonkey.com) to a Microsoft Excel roles undertaken by HPs within Europe, to gain an spreadsheet. Data analysis involved calculating descrip- overview of the different models of care and clinical tive statistics and frequencies based on the countries and research settings in which HPs undertake these where the participants currently worked. Musculoskelet. Care (2011) © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
  • 3. Stamm and Hill Extended Roles of Health Professionals in Europe Results physiotherapists and 45 (9%) occupational thera- pists, these three groups comprised 92% of the Participants cohort. The remaining 8% were psychologists, A total of 479 HPs from 27 countries participated in podiatrists, social workers and other professionals, the survey (Figure 1); their demographic data are such as clinical pharmacists, medical secretaries and shown in Table 1. Sixty‐one per cent of the all clinical study coordinators. No nutritionists com- participants were nurses and, with the 103 (22%) pleted the survey. Number of participants United Kingdom 120 Turkey 2 Switzerland 62 Sweden 8 Spain 27 Slovenia 6 Slovakia 5 Serbia 18 Romania 1 Portugal 28 Poland 5 Norway 40 Netherlands 9 Malta 3 Luxembourg 1 Lithuania 12 Latvia 1 Ireland 1 Greece 1 France 2 Finland 19 Estonia 29 Denmark 3 Czech Republic 41 Cyprus 4 Belgium 11 Austria 8 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 Figure 1 Distribution of the survey participants by country. The bars indicate the total number of participants per country. Countries are listed from bottom to top in alphabetical order Table 1. Demographic data of the survey participants Total Age group (in years) Clinical experience (in years) Research experience (in years) 20–30 31–40 41–50 Over 0–1 2–10 11–20 More 0–1 2–10 11–20 More 50 than 20 than 20 Nurse 294(61%) 34 66 104 90 13 116 106 49 108 133 27 5 Occupational therapist 45 (9%) 7 10 13 15 2 21 11 11 27 10 4 2 Psychologist 13 (3%) 5 6 2 – 4 4 5 – 7 4 2 – Podiatrist 6 (1%) 2 2 1 1 – 5 – 1 4 2 – – Physiotherapist 103 (22%) 15 30 35 23 2 36 30 34 62 26 2 3 Social worker 5 (1%) – 1 – 4 1 1 3 – 3 1 1 – Other 13 (3%) 3 4 2 3 3 4 4 2 4 8 – 1 Total 479 63 115 155 136 25 187 159 97 215 184 36 11 (13%) (24%) (32%) (28%) (5%) (39%) (33%) (20%) (45%) (38%) (8%) (2%) Musculoskelet. Care (2011) © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
  • 4. Table 2. Extended roles performed by health professionals within Europe. If one participant in a certain country marked a specific task, this is marked with a ■ in the table in the column relating to this country If you are performing extended roles in the rheumatology setting in which you are currently working, please indicate these by ticking the Czech Extended Roles of Health Professionals in Europe boxes below. Austria Belgium Cyprus Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Greece Ireland Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Malta Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal Romania Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey UK Work as a consultant/ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ advanced practitioner Manage your own caseload ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ independently Triage ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ Assess disease status and ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ activity Examine the musculoskeletal ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ system Formulate and carry out a ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ plan of disease management Manage disease symptoms ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ Recommend changes of drug ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ treatment Prescribe medications by ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ protocols Prescribe medications ■ ■ ■ ■ independently Give intra‐articular injections ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ Making referrals to other ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ health professionals Make referrals to physicians, e.g. ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ orthopaedic surgeon Admit patients to hospital ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ wards Musculoskelet. Care (2011) © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Stamm and Hill
  • 5. Discharge patients from your ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ care Recommendations for further ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ and other treatment options Address psychological ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ Stamm and Hill problems Address social problems ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ Order investigations such as ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ X‐rays and blood tests Assess the patients’ knowledge ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ of their disease Lead/teach patient education ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ courses Design patient education ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ materials Manage patient telephone ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ Musculoskelet. Care (2011) © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. advice lines Supervise health professionals ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ from different disciplines, including physicians and medical students Teach health professionals from ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ different disciplines, including physicians and medical students Manage clinical trials ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ Work as a research assistant ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ Lead clinical trials/research ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ Undertake independent ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ research Assessment other than typical ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ for your profession If one participant in a certain country marked a specific task, this is marked with a ■ in the table in the column relating to this country. Extended Roles of Health Professionals in Europe
  • 6. Table 3. Innovative models of care and research settings in which the survey participants worked If you do work in an extended role, please specify the model of care in which you are currently performing the extended roles you identified in Czech the previous question. Austria Belgium Cyprus Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Greece Ireland Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Malta Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal Romania Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey UK Traditional medical setting ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ (physician prescribes) Multi/interdisciplinary rheumatology/ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ Extended Roles of Health Professionals in Europe rehabilitation team, with physician being the team leader Multi/interdisciplinary rheumatology/ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ rehabilitation team, with non‐physicians as the team leader Academic/research setting, with the ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ physician as the team leader Academic/research setting with different ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ professionals, with non‐physicians as the team leader Community/primary care setting, with the ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ physician as the team leader Community/primary care setting, with ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ non‐physicians as the team leader Telephone helpline ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ Internet‐based helpline ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ Internet‐based care ■ ■ ■ Clinic led by nurse or other health ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ professional Private practice ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ If one participant in a certain country marked a specific task, this is marked with a ■ in the table in the column relating to this country. Musculoskelet. Care (2011) © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Stamm and Hill
  • 7. Stamm and Hill Table 4. Barriers experienced by health professionals that keep them from performing extended roles in a certain country Whether or not you work in extended roles, are there any barriers that keep you or your colleagues from performing Czech extended roles in your centre? Austria Belgium Cyprus Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Greece Ireland Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Malta Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal Romania Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey UK Musculoskelet. Care (2011) © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Lack of knowledge ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ Lack of education ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ Lack of educational opportunities ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ Legal constraints ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ Attitude of rheumatologists ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ Attitude of colleagues or other ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ health professionals Attitude of patients ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ Lack of support from colleagues ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ Lack of information during basic ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ training Lack of role models ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ Lack of time ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ Lack of funding ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ No need for extended roles ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ If one participant in a certain country marked a specific task, this is marked with a ■ in the table in the column relating to this country. Extended Roles of Health Professionals in Europe
  • 8. Extended Roles of Health Professionals in Europe Stamm and Hill Status of performance of extended roles Advantages of performing extended roles in Europe An open question inviting participants to cite the In the survey, 430 (90%) HPs said that they were potential advantages of performing extended roles was currently performing extended roles. The performance answered by 272 (57%) participants. Their responses of extended roles in the 27 responding countries is included three main areas: (i) advantages for the described in Table 2. The only country in which all patient (e.g. the provision of more holistic care, extended roles described in the survey were performed seamless care, a multidisciplinary perspective in care, by HPs was the UK. The tasks ‘design patient education materials’ (all countries, but two), ‘assess easier and timely access to care); (ii) advantages for the disease status and activity’ and ‘lead/teach patient healthcare system/institution (e.g. more cost‐effective education courses’ (all countries, but three) were those care due to shorter access time and fewer professionals most frequently marked as being performed by HPs in involved); and (iii) advantages for the professionals all responding countries. who performed extended roles (e.g. more challenging Educational courses were the most important workload, increased self‐confidence, self‐development additional training requested to fulfil the extended and knowledge, as well as career progression). roles (42% of all participants), followed by informal training in the workplace (32%) and formal training in Discussion the workplace (28%). Seventy‐three (15%) participants This was the first survey of its kind, focusing on the with a Masters degree and 13 (3%) with a PhD degree extended roles of HPs and corresponding innovative thought that their degree was necessary for performing models of care in rheumatology within Europe. The extended roles. data collected have enabled a comparison to be made between different countries. Ninety per cent of HPs Models of care were performing extended roles, with the three Innovative models of care and research settings (e.g. commonest activities including design patient educa- with non‐physicians as leaders, and telephone‐ or tion materials, assess disease status and activity, and internet‐based care) were used in all countries lead/teach patient education courses. No HPs from (Table 3), except for Greece, Ireland, Latvia, Romania Germany completed the survey and all those who and Turkey. completed the survey from Italy were physicians (these datasets were deleted). In order to establish equal Barriers experienced by HPs to keep them opportunities for patients with rheumatic diseases from performing extended roles within Europe, such as access to care and treatment, we suggest that innovative models of care, together An overview of the barriers experienced by HPs in with extended roles for HPs, should be introduced and regard to performing extended roles is shown in promoted in all European countries. Table 4. A considerable number of HPs (249; 53%) Several HPs in our survey indicated that they needed indicated that they had experienced barriers. In Estonia additional training to perform extended roles. Educa- and Switzerland, all of the barriers described in the tional courses were the most often sought additional questionnaire had been experienced. Legal constraints training. It is therefore essential to introduce educa- had been experienced in all but seven countries and tional courses, such as the EULAR Teach‐the‐Teachers most often been experienced in Austria (by 63% of the course, to HPs in countries where extended roles and participants), Switzerland (55%) and Portugal (43%), innovative models of care are rarely used. In addition, compared with just 9% of participants in the UK. enabling HPs to achieve higher qualifications may Interestingly, the attitudes of rheumatologists had influence whether they engage in extended roles and been experienced as barriers to performing extended the introduction of innovative models of care. roles in all but eight countries, while the attitudes of HPs throughout Europe experienced barriers to patients were cited as being a barrier in nine countries. performing extended roles, so the use of innovative Lack of knowledge, education and educational oppor- models of care may be limited. The main barriers tunities were also perceived as barriers in several recorded included legal constraints, the attitudes of countries. rheumatologists and patients, knowledge and educational Musculoskelet. Care (2011) © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
  • 9. Stamm and Hill Extended Roles of Health Professionals in Europe opportunities. The German‐speaking region of Europe, Dahaghin S, Bierma‐Zeinstra SM, Reijman M, Pols HA, particularly Austria, is an area where legal constraints Hazes JM, Koes BW (2005b). Prevalence and determi- might prevent HPs from performing extended roles and nants of one month hand pain and hand related this could have been the reason why innovative models of disability in the elderly (Rotterdam study). Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases 64: 99–104. care were also hardly used there. Hill J (1986). Patient evaluation of a rheumatology The potential use of innovative models of care may nursing clinic. Nursing Times 82: 42–3. depend on the professional and educational status of Hill J, Bird HA, Harmer R, Wright V, Lawton C (1994). An non‐physician HPs in a certain country. Innovative evaluation of the effectiveness, safety and acceptability of a models of care include multi/interdisciplinary teams in nurse practitioner in a rheumatology outpatient clinic. which all participating HPs have an equal professional British Journal of Rheumatology 33: 283–8. status, so that either a physician or a non‐physician can Hill J, Lewis M, Bird H (2009). Do OA patients gain be the team leader, compared with traditional settings, additional benefit from care from a clinical nurse in which always physicians were/are the team leaders. specialist? A randomized clinical trial. Rheumatology The results from this survey could be applied in several 48: 658–64. ways – for example, for lobbying for extended roles Humphreys A, Johnson S, Richardson J, Stenhouse E, in those countries in which this does not currently Watkins M (2007). A systematic review and meta‐ synthesis: Evaluating the effectiveness of nurse, midwife/ occur, using the inter‐country comparisons. Comparing allied health professional consultants. Journal of Clinical European with US data might be an interesting future Nursing 16: 1792–808. challenge for defining extended roles and models of care Kraus VB (1997). Pathogenesis and treatment of osteoar- in terms of the different social and healthcare systems. thritis. The Medical Clinics of North America 81: 85–112. Starting a common world‐wide discussion on the MacKay C, Davis AM, Mahomed N, Badley EM (2009). extended roles of non‐physician HPs may enable HPs Expanding roles in orthopaedic care: A comparison of to extend their current roles in countries where this is not physiotherapist and orthopaedic surgeon recommenda- yet common practice. Further, educational needs could tions for triage. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical be identified in several countries, as well as barriers which Practice 15: 178–83. could be addressed within international organizations McCabe C, McDowell J, Cushnaghan J, Butts S, Hewlett S such as EULAR. (2009). Rheumatology telephone helplines: An activity analysis. Rheumatology 39: 1390–5. Meadows A, Sheehan NJ (2005). Prescribing and injecting: Acknowledgements The expanding role of the rheumatology nurse. We would like to thank all participants of the survey, the Musculoskeletal Care 3: 176–8. translators Elzbieta Bobiatynska, Walter Grassi, Jana Miles K, Seitio O, McGilvray M (2006). Nurse prescribing Korandova, Katti Korve, Marja‐Leena Kukkurainen, in low‐resource settings: Professional considerations. Maria Matheou, Serge Perrot, Ruta Sargautyte, Pereira International Nursing Review 53: 290–6. de Silva and Jenny de la Torre, who translated the survey Ryan S, Hassell AB, Lewis M, Farrell A (2006). Impact of a rheumatology expert nurse on the wellbeing of patients into the different languages, and the EULAR secretariat attending a drug monitoring clinic. Journal of Advanced (Anja Schönbächler and Caroline Pasche) for their help Nursing 53: 277–86. and support in the present project, and EULAR for partly Stamm T, Van der Giesen F, Thorstensson C, Steen E, funding this project. Birrell F, Bauernfeind B, Marshall N, Prodinger B, Machold K, Smolen J, Kloppenburg M (2009). Patient REFERENCES perspective of hand osteoarthritis in relation to concepts covered by instruments measuring function- Cusick A, Johnson L, Bissett M (2009). Occupational ing: A qualitative European multicentre study. Annals therapy in emergency departments: Australian practice. of the Rheumatic Diseases 68: 1453–60. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice 15: 257–65. Thwaites C (2004). Rheumatology telephone advice lines. Dahaghin S, Bierma‐Zeinstra SM, Ginai AZ, Pols HA, Musculoskeletal Care 2: 120–6. Hazes JM, Koes BW (2005a). Prevalence and pattern of World Health Organization (2004). The World Health radiographic hand osteoarthritis and association with Report 2004. Available at http://www.who.int/whr/ pain and disability (the Rotterdam study). Annals of the 2004/en/ (Accessed 20 August 2010). Rheumatic Diseases 64: 682–7. Musculoskelet. Care (2011) © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.