Self-management topics were introduced in 57/86 (66%) consultations relating to long-term conditions, within which nurse-initiated self-management dialogue was more frequently observed than GP-initiated self-management dialogue. There was, however, little evidence that the structure of either routine or disease-management review appointments supported expansion of self-management dialogue. The analysis suggested that use of the QOF computer templates during consultations was both shaped by and reinforced the difficulties in supporting self-management, particularly in disease-management review appointments. These findings related to the framing of both professional-initiated and patient-initiated sequences of talk.
Influencing agenda setting
Use of the QOF computer templates was reported by professionals as influencing the delivery of care for people with long-term conditions. Although some accounts referred to the templates as providing consistency of care, there was a tendency for them to be perceived as reducing the patient's contribution to the encounter As illustrated in nurse accounts, the need to get tasks done relating to evidence-based quality indicators took precedence and this tended to be at the expense of integrating patient-initiated dialogue into the conversation.
Nurse (N): ‘Have to follow the template, don't you?’
Interviewer (I): ‘Right. Okay.’
N: ‘Everything on the template.’
I: ‘Can I ask how you find the template …?’
N: ‘It's good, it's good because you don't miss things then, it's all there, you don't really have to think a lot for yourself. Or you can forget things, you know, if you haven't got that.’
I: ‘Can I ask how … you use the template during the consultation …?’
N: ‘Well you ask, you do the peak flow, you do the blood pressure, you do weight as well, all that's on it. Then you do, if there's any wheeze at night and if it's problematic, you know, if he's using his inhalers more.’ (interview with nurse 09)
I see myself in the consultation, I'm there to, I've got a job to get done, I've got, I've got my own agenda, but then the patient's got an agenda as well, so, it's driven by the things, the boxes I've got to tick for QOF and things like that, but also the patients come in with lists … so, I'm there to facilitate information exchange, but I've got boxes of my own to tick as well. “Yes I know you've got things you want to ask, but there's things I need to do as well”, and it's just a balancing act.’ (interview with nurse 01)
‘Yeah, you've got an agenda. They may well have an agenda. And I tend to, rightly or wrongly, get my agenda first. You know, make sure my agenda's done … But then I do at the end sort of say… “Is that it? Do you want anything else today?” … And sometimes that backfires on me, because then they will, you know, burst into tears and say “Oh yes, this happened to me”.’ (interview with nurse 02)
Throughout accounts, professionals referred to needing to maintain relationships with patients. As illustrated in the fragment of consultation below, attempts to achieve this while fulfilling the QOF agenda included efforts to minimise responsibility for the process. In this example, on line 14, the nurse uses the pronoun ‘we’ to frame the need to ask ‘lots of questions.’
Fragment 173: PN0203
10 N: (..) now then this is just your annual check up in't it (Patient blows and uses hanky to nose)
11 Patient (P): yeah
12 N: have we written to yer and invited you to come
13 P: (garble) [yeah] (garbled from patient then puts hanky away in her pocket) (overlap)
14 N: yeah yeah cool (..) so this just your annual review where we ask you lots of questions
15 P: alright (..) right
16 N: see how you are (..) and it's following on from the funny do that you had
17 P: right yeah (..) yeah
18 N: when you had a little stroke didn't you (..) you've no problems with your heart have you? (52-year-old female patient attending for a review of her stroke disease with a nurse)
Reinforcing a checklist approach to the encounter
There was evidence that the computer templates reinforced a checklist approach to consultations in which professionals worked through a range of clinical parameters. However, analysis suggested that this created difficulties in discussing self-management topics. This related to the number of self-management topics raised in a consultation and the manner in which they were framed.
There was evidence that working through a list of self-management topics contributed to a sense of bombardment. For example, during an interview, which entailed generating video-stimulated accounts, a nurse described a need to address a variety of self-management topics but with awareness that this might upset the patient.
N: ‘I mean she was feeling a bit sort of got at, the fact that I'd already had the diet and the alcohol. And then smoking was the last straw really.’ (laughter)
I: ‘Did it feel like that to you or…’
N: ‘No, no. To me it's just… just, I ask the same questions every, you know, the same templates every single day of me working life, for somebody or other. I mean, even though I know that they smoke I've got to ask it again. I know that they eat too much; I've got to ask it again. Because that's what the screen is asking me to ask.’ (interview with nurse 04)
Analysis suggested that resolving this tension was not straightforward, and as demonstrated in the next fragment of consultation (see lines 267–274), efforts tended to become focused on maintaining the relationship at the expense of more expanded self-management dialogue. Overall, as consultations proceeded through a list of template-driven parameters, dialogue concerning each subsequent self-management topic tended to diminish.
Fragment 162: PN0401
(The preceding conversation dealt with the patient's weight and eating habits.)
242 N: what about alcohol? (nurse looking at computer)
243 P: what about it?
244 N: do you drink any? (nurse turns to look at patient)
245 P: oh yes (..) far too much
246 N: do you (..) how many units a week?
247 P: I've no idea I can't count so high (coughs)
248 N: right seriously now (..) I'm serious now (..) how many (..) would would you drink a bottle of wine a day?
249 P: oh no not a whole bottle (..) I'd drink a couple of glasses a day
250 N: every day?
251 P: no not every day but (..)
252 N: (overlapping) most days? (..) and if you've had the wine is that it (..) do you have (..) drinks after your wine?
253 P: oh no
254 N: no (..) so it would be your wine? (..) right okay (turns to computer)
255 P: yeah (..) I'd drink (..) I'd have more on the weekend because we tend to sit in the garden especially in summer (..) sit in the garden and have two glasses
256 N: nice new garden (glances at patient)
257 (laughter)
258 P: but yeah I have a couple of glasses of wine
259 N: (turns to patient) what about smoking status (…) are we still smoking (turns back to computer)
260 P: yes
261 N: right (…) and have you (..) ever (..) thought about wanting to stop smoking?
262 P: I did once (..) you gave me them clever tablets
263 N: (turns to look at patient) hmm hmm (…) would you like to try again?
264 P: no(..) thank you
265 N: leave it at the moment (..) that's fine (Looking back at computer screen)
266 (long pause 5 seconds)
267 P: god you've got me stopping drinking eating smoking (laughing)
268 N: NO NO NO NO NO no they are they are all major life-changing decisions
269 P: (overlapping) (cough)
270 N: so I'm not saying you-
271 P: I've taken up knitting (nurse turns to patient) (..) you don't smoke as much when you knit
272 N: (laughs) I'm only trying as a professional (glances at computer screen) to advise you on that road and that's-
273 P: I know(..) I know I know
274 N: (glances at computer screen) have you got a urine sample with you this morning? (48-year-old female attending for review of her hypertension with a practice nurse)
Analysis also suggested that use of the QOF templates reinforced self-management topics being introduced as discrete behaviours to be addressed. However, there was little evidence that such an approach led to expanded dialogue around self-management topics. Rather, analysis of consultations suggested that this had the potential to make patients answerable for their actions, resulting in a subsequent shift away from these topics of conversation. As shown in the following fragment, professionals (and patients) instead worked to repair relations and maintain the patient's sense of wellbeing.
Fragment 138: PN0901
57 N: what's your diet like?
58 P: (cough)
59 N: what-
60 P: I do have cheat but it does come within the erm (..) the diabetic-
61 N: it's you don't go overboard with anything (looking at screen)
62 P: No
63 N: you just eat sensibly
64 P: I eat sensibly yeah
93 N: do you drink much? (..) (gesture) not alcohol tea coffee water
94 P: yeah
95 N: do you drink alcohol?
96 P: no I don't no
97 N: okay can I just get your blood pressure (70-year-old female attending a diabetes review appointment with a practice nurse)
Disrupting patient-initiated self-management dialogue
The professional accounts suggested that the QOF disease-management templates were a key reason for being unable to provide ideal patient-centred notions of care.
‘… I try and mentally reinforce my early 1980s GP upbringing of the fundamental importance of the consultation in the practice of primary care. And I think there are strong forces mitigating against that, you know, one could start off with a sheet, or you've got a computer template, and there's all those different lines you've got to go through doctor. “And have you asked this, and have you asked that?” And what have you. And it's, it would be so easy to work your way through that like an automaton. (interview with GP11)
However, comparative analysis of interviews and recordings suggested that it was not necessarily the introduction of the computer template that created the difficulties. Rather, there was evidence to suggest that professionals turned to and used the computer templates when self-management topics arose during consultations.
One illustration of this (see fragment below) is a 57-year-old man who attended a scheduled 15-minute diabetes review appointment with GP11. During this particular encounter, the patient cautiously raises concerns about his eating habits and, on line 22, tentatively suggests that this might account for deterioration in his diabetes control. It is at this point that the GP turns to the computer and then runs through various parameters, referring in the first instance to the ‘normal’ results (line 23). Eventually the GP mentions the urine result and the discussion shifts to the need for new medication to deal with this (lines 31–36). Through use of the computer template, a shift is observed away from the patient's presentation of the self-management topic to a discussion of options around the need for medication to control the ‘leaking’ of ‘a bit of protein’ (that is, mircoalbuminuria).
Fragment 169: GP1109
11 GP: yeah (sitting forward) you're looking a lot lot better good good (overlap)
12 P: but I did book in for this because I thought the diabetic control would be a lot better
13 GP: uh hmm uh Hmm
14 P: and whether it's partly the diet or not I don't know
15 GP: right
16 P: erm but it's not as good as I thought hoping it might be
17 GP: right right (glances to screen)
18 P: and as I suppose having lived with (name removed) (..) where (name removed) dive into chocolate I didn't but I suppose I got hooked on biscuits (laughs)
19 GP: right
20 P: so I do eat (..) occasionally biscuits in an evening which I would never do before
21 GP: right
22 P: so whether that's (..) affecting it I don't know (overlap)
23 GP: possibly ok (looks to screen again) You'd had these blood tests done hadn't you (.) let's have a look at some of those results then (…) and if anything your weight was down a little bit from May erm checked your blood pressure and that (..) was okay just just within the range
24 P: hmm
25 GP: (GP glancing between screen and patient) your HbA1c that's and I think we've mentioned that before the percentage of your haemoglobin carried round in your red cells that's got some sugar attached to it (gesture) that was 8.3% so err the reading before err (..) was 6.4 so that has gone up a little bit
26 P: hmm
27 GP: it's nice to be at 7% or below and erm (.) your cholesterol level was 3.5 which was which was in and erm okay (..) erm that's
28: (long pause) (GP types on computer)
29 GP: we'd dipped your urine to see if there was any protein in it and the dip came back negative but then we sent it off to the lab and they've got a more sophisticated test that they can do
30 P: hmm
31 GP: and did show that there was a little bit of err err protein in your urine what's called micro albumin err erm (..) and I think also previously that had just come (..) back a little on the high side (.) that can sometimes be an indication that erm (..) your kidneys are (..) if you like leaking a bit of protein which can be a response to the diabetes erm and there is some medication we can give you to try and prevent that something called an ACE [angiotensin-converting enzyme] inhibitor and I'm wondering whether we should erm
32 P: hmm
33 GP: have a look at that (.) I know it's yet another tablet to take that's that's the thing
34 P: well well I was hoping two or three I could perhaps stop taking
35 GP: right right (looks to computer) shall we have a look at your medication
36 P: yeah (..) I need some more anyway (…….). (57-year-old male attending a 15-minute diabetes review appointment with a GP)