The relationship between discharge planning ability and nursing care ability of ward nurses working for the adjustment of discharge at a university hospital

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between the discharge planning ability and the nursing care ability of ward nurses working at a university hospital.

A self-administered questionnaire was given to 196 ward nurses related to the adjustment of leaving the hospital working in the university hospital. The nursing ability consisted of seven competencies. Correlation coefficient between discharge planning ability and the nursing care ability and its seven components were calculated. Discharge planning ability was considered to be an explanatory variable and a multiple regression analysis with the seven competencies of the nursing care ability as the independent variables were performed.

Of the 196 ward nurses contacted, there were 150 valid respondents. Discharge planning ability was positively correlated with nursing care ability (r＝0.379, p＜0.01) and its seven competencies (r＝0.236〜0.538, p＜0.01). Through the multiple regression analysis with discharge planning ability as the predictor variable, only the care coordination was extracted from the seven competencies of the nursing care ability.

Nursing care ability is a part of discharge planning, and discharge planning ability had a positive correlation with nursing care ability. Therefore, improvement in nursing care ability is necessary for improvement in discharge planning ability.