Evaluating The Role Of Nurse Practitioners In The Management Of Obesity

Abstract

The World Health Organisation defines overweight and obesity as an abnormal accumulation of fat that can significantly present a risk to an individual’s health.  Body mass index (BMI) on the other hand is the method used to estimate overweight in individuals which is calculated using a person’s weight (kilograms) divided by the square root of the height. BMI above 30 is defined as obese and BMI between 25 and 29 is defined as overweight.The aim of this review was to explore the role of primary nurse practitioners in the management of patients with weight issues and discover the factors influencing obesity management by primary care providers. This is in order toelicit the views, experiences and beliefs of primary care providers while managing over weight patients.Different electronic databases were searched; Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), Medline, internurse Northampton full text collection@ovid, Pubmed, Web of Science and Psych info. Following the search, a total of 20 papers were found and another 5 were discovered after a hand search of the references. After reading through the abstract and methodology, 8 papers were excluded. The Critical Appraisal Skills Program (CASP) critiquing tool was used to check the suitability of the papers selected. The researcher utilised meta-ethnography in bringing the review together, this was done by collectively analysing the material aggregating the themes within each piece of research in order to develop a new one. Codes were assigned to the main findings identified in each paper and similar codes were grouped to form themes.The findings from this review have revealed that obesity is more of a social problem rather than a medical one and has therefore called into question the rationale for a whole scale management of obesity in PHC settings. However, they reasoned that the role of clinicians is to raise the issue and not manage the problem themselves. The factors identified in this review has the big influences on staff handling of obesity such as lack of time, lack of motivation and lack of clear cut guidelines. The author suggests that primary care setting should make the necessary provisions such that staff would have enough time to carry out the needed action for weight management.