Continue to advance the NP role, seeking salient solutions to the management of patients with chronic illness, mental illness, and comprehensive care for all populations through inclusion of NPs in family health teams,
Unattached Patient Lists, and other PHC programs.
Further quantitative and qualitative research is needed into the specific demographics, needs, and outcomes of local unattached patient populations.
(25-27) A qualitative investigation of unattached patients with low SES and chronic disease highlighted themes of participants feeling like undesirable patients because of unsuccessful attempts to find a regular provider and concerns about lack of access to preventive services and discontinuous medical records.
With historically high patient attachment rates in Canada and NS, very little is known about access to primary health care for unattached patients, including whether or not SES or chronic disease status is related to unattached patients' ability to get an appointment with a primary health care provider.