Primary health care practice: Is nursing part of the solution or the problem?

Abstract

While the issue of health care reform continues to be a topic for national debate, reform within states and provider groups is moving forward. This article focuses on primary health care as the foundation for health care reform and nursing's readiness to participate as a key player in health care delivery. The key variables of access, quality, cost, and system organization are reviewed relative to their effect on past and future delivery models. Nursing is considered neither the total problem nor the total solution to the provision of primary health care but is viewed as a way of putting “health” back into primary care.