The process of nurses' role negotiation in general practice: A grounded theory study

Aim: To explain the process by which nurses' roles are negotiated in general practice. Background: Primary care nurses do important work within a social model of health to meet the needs of the populations they serve. Latterly, in the face of increased demand and workforce shortages, they are also taking on more medical responsibilities through task-shifting. Despite the increased complexity of their professional role, little is known about the processes by which it is negotiated. Design: Constructivist grounded theory. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 22 participants from 17 New Zealand general practices between December 2020 and January 2022. Due to COVID-19, 11 interviews were via Zoom™. Concurrent data generation and analysis, using the constant comparative method and common grounded theory methods, identified the participants' main concern and led to the construction of a substantive explanatory theory around a core category. Results: The substantive explanatory theory of creating place proposes that the negotiation of nurse roles within New Zealand general practice is a three-stage process involving occupying space, positioning to do differently and leveraging opportunity. Nurses and others act and interact in these stages, in accordance with their conceptualizations of need-responsive nursing practice, towards the outcome defining place. Defining place conceptualizes an accommodation between the values beliefs and expectations of individuals and pre-existing organizational norms, in which individual and group-normative concepts of need-responsive nursing practice are themselves developed. Conclusion: The theory of creating place provides new insights into the process of nurses' role negotiation in general practice. Findings support strategies to enable nurses, employers and health system managers to better negotiate professional roles to meet the needs of the populations they serve, while making optimum use of nursing skills and competencies.