Abstract
The objective of this research is to shed light on the difficulties experienced by discharge nurses in acute hospitals when engaging in discharge planning for elderly patients. The results of qualitative analysis of the information gained in an interview survey conducted separately with 11 discharge nurses showed that the challenges they faced were attributable to: their inflexibility in responding appropriately to diverse requests from elderly patients and their families; insufficient coordination and collaboration between hospital staff members involved in the discharge planning process; limited availability of local resources in the community; and an inadequate organizational support structure. Furthermore, time constraints arising from the necessity to complete the discharge process in a short period also seemed likely to have added extra burden to the nurses. Through this research, the core concept underlying the sense of difficulty shared by the nurses in charge of discharge planning in acute hospitals when dealing with elderly patients whose conditions varied considerably from individual to individual was identified as "a feeling of uncertainty in what they were doing" that inevitably had grown from the complexly intertwined negative factors described above. The research suggests that, for these nurses to be able to continue pursuing better ways to care for elderly patients, it is important that they deepen their professional knowledge by acquiring more hands-on experience, as well as by clearly defining the efforts they have made in such work and evaluating how meaningful each of these efforts has been through a close review of past experiences.
