Task performance and consensus: the health associate role.

Abstract

Abstract The reallocation of activities of health care personnel has been proposed as one potential solution to the problems of health care delivery. An investigation was undertaken to examine role consensus and reported task performance in a prepaid group practice setting where new and redefined roles had been introduced. Most of the personnel in the role of the health associate, a new non-physician role, were nurses. The research was directed to the question of whether traditional physician-nurse role relations prevail in a setting of change. Analysis focused on the degree of consensus on task-specific role expectations (shared definition of the role) and the perceived performance of the health associates. Although both physicians and health associates thought the health associates should be doing additional health care activities, the physicians held more limited expectations for them. Health associates reportedly performed fewer and less complex medical care tasks than physicians. Reported health associate performance did not fully conform to task-specific role expectations. It is suggested that a traditional structure for the delivery of services reinforced traditional roles.