Clarification of Nurses' Expected Role in Health Promotion: Study Protocol of an Exploratory Clustered Randomised Controlled Trial for the ROLE-AP Program

Role confusion is hampering the development of primary care nurses' capacity for health promotion. Organizations can implement role clarification programs to develop the description of an expected role in the organization and reduce the negative effects of role confusion. Literature on role clarification interventions reveal that they are complex interventions seeking discussion to reach agreement between professionals about the expected role activities. However, such interventions have shown several methodological shortcomings. This study aims to implement and evaluate a multi-component program to clarify primary care nurses' role in health promotion. An exploratory clinical trial will help evaluate the preliminary efficacy and understand if an intervention of these characteristics is feasible, if its components are appropriate and / or if it is accepted by the participants. This is a pilot cluster randomized exploratory trial, which corresponds to Phase II of the Medical Research Council (MRC) framework for the development and evaluation of clinical trials in complex interventions. The study will be conducted in the province of Navarra (Spain), in the primary health care service. The study will follow a cluster randomised design with primary care teams (PCT) as sampling units. A PCT consists of a group of family physicians who work in close cooperation with nurses and social workers to offer primary care services to registered individuals in the area. Each cluster will be randomly assigned to one of the two groups, control or intervention. The main reason for using a cluster design is to avoid contamination, which could occur among nurses working in the same PCT. The randomisation of the study groups will be stratified according to the scope of work (rural / urban), to guarantee the representativeness of the different segments of the study population. It has been considered that nurses' activities and the perception they may have about their health promoting role may be conditioned by two factors: the organization and structure of the PCT and the characteristics of the populations they attend. These two factors may vary depending on the team attending rural or urban population, so it will be considered as a possible confusing variable. The control group will continue with their routine.