Abstract
Background: Nurses have been increasingly employed in Australian general practice to address the growing chronic health needs of the community. While it has been reported that funding and challenges in collaborating with doctors have constrained their role1, there has been limited investigation of this workforce and the tasks these nurses undertake within patient encounters.2,3
Aim: This paper describes the development of an online tool, as part of a larger project, to capture the professional profile of general practice nurses and explore the nature of their encounters with patients.
Methods: Initial drafts of the tool were created by researchers with combined expertise in nursing, health services research and methodology. This was followed by a process of user acceptance testing conducted as video interviews with the project officer using vignettes to provide exemplar encounter data. Data were collected via observation of participants completing the tool, audio-recording of the sessions and a short survey. Alpha testing was undertaken with 4 nurse academics and 2 health services researchers to undertake an initial tool assessment. After changes were made based on this feedback, beta testing was undertaken to facilitate testing of the tool by real-world users. This involved 13 nurses currently working in clinical practice.
Results: Alpha testing resulted in some changes to the ordering of items, phrasing and wording of instructions. Beta testing demonstrated that the tool's refinement ensured that it was relatively easy to use and reliably captured key encounter data from vignettes. Feedback about issues related to the use of standardised clinical terminology and tool formatting informed final tool refinement. Positive feedback focussed on how well the tool captured the depth of care provided in nursing encounters. Survey ratings showed that all participants agreed/strongly agreed that the tool would be useful in collecting encounter data, and the interface was easy to navigate and use.
Implications: The process used in this study ensured that the tool is fit for purpose and acceptable to end-users. Ensuring user acceptability is vital to promote engagement and participation in the subsequent data collection phases. The exemplar process provided in this study could be applied to tool development in other nursing contexts.
Notes
References:
1. Halcomb , E., & Ashley, C. (2019). Are Australian general practice nurses underutilised? An examination of current roles and task satisfaction. Collegian, 26(5), 522-527.
2. Halcomb, E., & Bird, S. (2020). Job satisfaction and career intention of Australian general practice nurses: A cross-sectional survey. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 52(3), 270-280.
3. Halcomb, E. J., Salamonson, Y., Davidson, P. M., Kaur, R., et al. (2014). The evolution of nursing in Australian general practice: a comparative analysis of workforce surveys ten years on. BMC Family Practice 15(52), http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2296/1415/1452.
Sigma Membership
Xi Omicron at-Large
Type
Presentation
Format Type
Text-based Document
Study Design/Type
Other
Research Approach
Other
Keywords:
Instrument and Tool Development, Primary Care, Workforce, Promoting Clinical Outcomes, Austalia
Recommended Citation
Halcomb, Elizabeth; Mursa, Ruth; Gordon, Julie; Randall, Susan; Lu, Yang; Henderson, Joan; and Harrison, Christopher, "Developing the OCEAN Tool: An Instrument to Capture Nurses’ Work in Australian General Practice" (2025). Biennial Convention (CONV). 90.
https://www.sigmarepository.org/convention/2025/presentations_2025/90
Conference Name
48th Biennial Convention
Conference Host
Sigma Theta Tau International
Conference Location
Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Conference Year
2025
Rights Holder
All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record. All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository. All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.
Review Type
Abstract Review Only: Reviewed by Event Host
Acquisition
Proxy-submission
Date of Issue
2025-11-26
Developing the OCEAN Tool: An Instrument to Capture Nurses’ Work in Australian General Practice
Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Background: Nurses have been increasingly employed in Australian general practice to address the growing chronic health needs of the community. While it has been reported that funding and challenges in collaborating with doctors have constrained their role1, there has been limited investigation of this workforce and the tasks these nurses undertake within patient encounters.2,3
Aim: This paper describes the development of an online tool, as part of a larger project, to capture the professional profile of general practice nurses and explore the nature of their encounters with patients.
Methods: Initial drafts of the tool were created by researchers with combined expertise in nursing, health services research and methodology. This was followed by a process of user acceptance testing conducted as video interviews with the project officer using vignettes to provide exemplar encounter data. Data were collected via observation of participants completing the tool, audio-recording of the sessions and a short survey. Alpha testing was undertaken with 4 nurse academics and 2 health services researchers to undertake an initial tool assessment. After changes were made based on this feedback, beta testing was undertaken to facilitate testing of the tool by real-world users. This involved 13 nurses currently working in clinical practice.
Results: Alpha testing resulted in some changes to the ordering of items, phrasing and wording of instructions. Beta testing demonstrated that the tool's refinement ensured that it was relatively easy to use and reliably captured key encounter data from vignettes. Feedback about issues related to the use of standardised clinical terminology and tool formatting informed final tool refinement. Positive feedback focussed on how well the tool captured the depth of care provided in nursing encounters. Survey ratings showed that all participants agreed/strongly agreed that the tool would be useful in collecting encounter data, and the interface was easy to navigate and use.
Implications: The process used in this study ensured that the tool is fit for purpose and acceptable to end-users. Ensuring user acceptability is vital to promote engagement and participation in the subsequent data collection phases. The exemplar process provided in this study could be applied to tool development in other nursing contexts.
Description
Understanding the professional profile of general practice nurses and the nature of their encounters will inform strategies to support the workforce and enhance their practice. Ensuring robust data collection with a well-developed tool is essential to optimising data quality to answer the research questions. While this study is an exemplar, the process used to develop this tool can be applied to tool development in other clinical areas.