Table 1 Interview and focus group schedules explored the following issues
Service users and the consumer group | Allied Health managers, nursing managers and podiatrists | Enrolled Nurses | Trainee PA |
|---|---|---|---|
· Exploration of their use of the service | · Exploration of their service | · Background to their role in foot-care | · Exploration of their service |
· Exploration of their interface with the podiatrist and trainee PA | · Why podiatry assistants were introduced | · How their role differs to the PA role | · Their background before training as a PA |
· General feelings about the use of assistants | · The impact of the introduction of the assistant on their role, workload, patient throughput (etc.) | · How the PA role was introduced | · What attracted them to the role |
· Relationship to and with the new PA | · Why the (PA) role was introduced | ||
· Understanding of, and preferences for levels of training of Pas | |||
· he impact of the PA on their role and their service | · Their training background (including traineeship) | ||
· Important qualities of PAs | |||
· Relationship with the PA | · Mechanisms that help/hinder the new role to be effective | · Mechanisms that help/hinder them to be effective in the new role | |
· Understanding of the supervision support | |||
· How is it decided what roles/duties they undertake in their service | |||
· Governance/responsibility | · Issues that have arisen with the new role | ||
· Current and other possible ways to measure the PA’s effectiveness | · Relationship with qualified practitioners (delegation of roles, autonomy, responsibility) | ||
· Effectiveness of the implementation process | |||
· Mechanisms that help/hinder the PA to be effective | · Supervision arrangements | ||
· Career development opportunities | |||
· Decisions around roles/duties undertaken | |||
· How the PA workload is determined (role boundaries) |