it is important to note that the table reviews solely the activities of advanced practice nurses in the primary care sector it does not include evaluations reviewing their activities in hospitals the evaluations are grouped by the broad type of activities that advanced practice nurses can play in primary care general roles including being a first contact with patients and routine followup for a broad range of patients more specific roles in chronic disease management eg for asthma diabetes cardiovascular problems specific roles in prescribing pharmaceutical drugs two main criteria have been used to select the evaluations presented in the following table study design with the selection focusing on evaluations based on randomised controlled trials and other rigorous evaluation methods country coverage with the selection attempting to cover as many countries as possible while maintaining a balance in the number of evaluations per country as might be expected most of the evaluations have been carried out in countries that have a long experience in experimenting with and deploying advanced practice nurses in primary care the united states canada the united kingdom and finland