• Janni Katharina Stuhr, Jesper Lykkegaard, Jette Kolding Kristensen, Jette Brommann Kornum, and Malene Plejdrup Hansen.
• Research Unit for General Practice, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark.
• Fam Pract. 2019 Mar 20; 36 (2): 192-198.

BackgroundSore throat is a frequent presentation of acute respiratory tract infections in general practice. Though these infections are often harmless and self-limiting, antibiotics are frequently prescribed. In Denmark, practice nurses manage an increasing part of patients with acute minor illnesses.ObjectivesWe aimed (i) to investigate Danish practice nurses' and GPs' management of patients presenting with a sore throat and (ii) to explore to what extent management is according to current Danish guidelines.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted during winter 2017, involving GPs and practice nurses in Danish general practices. Patients with a sore throat were registered according to the Audit Project Odense method.ResultsA total of 44 practices participated with the registration of 1503 patients presenting with a sore throat. Most patients had a strep A test performed, especially when managed by a practice nurse (84.6% versus 61.8%, χ2 = 90.1, P < 0.05). In total, 40.6% of performed strep A tests were not according to guideline recommendations. Antibiotics were prescribed for about one-third of patients, regardless whether managed by a practice nurse or a GP (χ2 = 0.33, P = 0.57). However, 32.4% of these prescriptions were not in line with Danish guidelines.ConclusionPatients with acute sore throat were managed similarly by GPs and practice nurses, apart from a higher use of strep A tests in patients seen by practice nurses. Importantly, this study demonstrated that there is still room for improvement of the management of these patients in Danish general practice.© The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

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