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BMC Primary Care
Published in: BMC Primary Care 1/2018

Open Access 01-12-2018 | Research article

Using a modified nominal group technique to develop general practice

Authors: Elisabeth Søndergaard, Ruth K. Ertmann, Susanne Reventlow, Kirsten Lykke

Published in: BMC Primary Care | Issue 1/2018

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Abstract

Background

There are few areas of health care where sufficient research-based evidence exists and primary health care is no exception. In the absence of such evidence, the development of assisted support must be based on the opinions and experience of professionals with knowledge of the relevant field. The purpose of this research project is to explore how the nominal group technique can be used to establish consensus by analysing how it supported the development of structured, knowledge-based, electronic health records for preventive child health examinations in Danish general practice.

Methods

We convened an expert panel of five general practitioners with a special interest in the preventive child health examinations. We introduced the panel to the nominal group technique, a well-established, structured, multistep, facilitated, group meeting technique used to generate consensus. The panel used the technique to agree on the key clinical and socioeconomic themes to include in new electronic records for the seven preventive child health examinations in Denmark. The panel met three times over a four-month period between 2013 and 2014 and their meetings lasted between two-and-a-half and five hours.

Results

1) The structured and stepwise process of the nominal group technique supported our expert panel’s focus as well as their equal opportunities to speak. 2) The method’s flexibility enabled participants to work as a group and in pairs to discuss and refine thematic classifications. 3) Serial meetings supported continual evaluation, critical reflection, and knowledge searches, enabling our panel to produce a template that could be adapted for all seven preventive child health examinations.

Conclusion

The nominal group technique proved to be a useful method for reaching consensus by identifying key quality markers for use in daily clinical practice. Our study focused on the development of content and a layout for systematic, knowledge-based, electronic health records. We recommend the method as a suitable working tool for dealing with complex questions in general practice or similar settings, and we present and discuss modifications to the original model.
Footnotes
1
Creating electronic health records is part of DanChild, a research and quality development project, with the goal to develop a new national birth cohort with potential to nest randomised trials in general practice. The cohort will support the development of knowledge about child health which is highly relevant to the work in general practice.
 
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Metadata
Title
Using a modified nominal group technique to develop general practice
Authors
Elisabeth Søndergaard
Ruth K. Ertmann
Susanne Reventlow
Kirsten Lykke
Publication date
01-12-2018
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Primary Care / Issue 1/2018
Electronic ISSN: 2731-4553
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12875-018-0811-9

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