PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Allison A. Norful AU - Krystyna de Jacq AU - Richard Carlino AU - Lusine Poghosyan TI - Nurse Practitioner–Physician Comanagement: A Theoretical Model to Alleviate Primary Care Strain AID - 10.1370/afm.2230 DP - 2018 May 01 TA - The Annals of Family Medicine PG - 250--256 VI - 16 IP - 3 4099 - http://www.annfammed.org/content/16/3/250.short 4100 - http://www.annfammed.org/content/16/3/250.full SO - Ann Fam Med2018 May 01; 16 AB - PURPOSE Various models of care delivery have been investigated to meet the increasing demands in primary care. One proposed model is comanagement of patients by more than 1 primary care clinician. Comanagement has been investigated in acute care with surgical teams and in outpatient settings with primary care physicians and specialists. Because nurse practitioners are increasingly managing patient care as independent clinicians, our study objective was to propose a model of nurse practitioner–physician comanagement.METHODS We conducted a literature search using the following key words: comanagement; primary care; nurse practitioner OR advanced practice nurse. From 156 studies, we extracted information about nurse practitioner–physician comanagement antecedents, attributes, and consequences. A systematic review of the findings helped determine effects of nurse practitioner–physician comanagement on patient care. Then, we performed 26 interviews with nurse practitioners and physicians to obtain their perspectives on nurse practitioner–physician comanagement. Results were compiled to create our conceptual nurse practitioner–physician comanagement model.RESULTS Our model of nurse practitioner–physician comanagement has 3 elements: effective communication; mutual respect and trust; and clinical alignment/shared philosophy of care. Interviews indicated that successful comanagement can alleviate individual workload, prevent burnout, improve patient care quality, and lead to increased patient access to care. Legal and organizational barriers, however, inhibit the ability of nurse practitioners to practice autonomously or with equal care management resources as primary care physicians.CONCLUSIONS Future research should focus on developing instruments to measure and further assess nurse practitioner–physician comanagement in the primary care practice setting.