Brief health promotion in urgent care centres: a qualitative study of patients’ and nurse practitioners’ attitudes

Abstract

As the number of people with long-term conditions who die prematurely rises, the need for health promotion has come to the fore. However, there is little evidence for how acceptable health promotion is for patients and service providers in nurse-led minor injury units, walk-in centres and urgent care centres.The authors undertook a qualitative study with 204 patients with high-risk behaviours and 14 nurse practitioners to examine their attitudes to a brief health promotion intervention. More than 65% of the patients thought the intervention was a good idea and should become part of practice; less than 1% said it was inappropriate. The nurse practitioners stated that there are opportunities for brief health conversations, but had mixed views about conducting them in this setting.The findings suggest that brief health promotion screening, advice, leaflets and referrals are acceptable in these settings. The authors recommend additional health promotion training, support and pragmatic policies to help nurse practitioners integrate health promotion into care provision.