Conditions and problems of home care support by nurses in integrated community care wards in urban areas

Abstract

This study aimed to clarify the present conditions and problems of home care support by nurses in integrated community care wards.

Anonymous self-administered questionnaires were distributed to 220 nurses in the integrated community care wards of 10 hospitals in the urban area of the Kanto region.

The home care support in this study was defined as support for returning home and acceptance when disease condition worsened.

The results indicated the item with the highest performance score in nurses' home care support was prompting patients to feed themselves (96.3%), and in prediction after discharge was writing a nursing summary (85.2%). These results clarify the efforts of nurses in integrated community care wards toward improving living functions. The result also provide important insights for home care providers on prediction of medical conditions and lifestyle issues after hospital discharge. Administrators were performing home care support more than the staffs. Those who frequently participated in the pre-discharge conference were also performing home care support in high frequency.

The low implementation of home care support was the utilization of social resources. In order to further implement home care support, skills improvement that can utilize social resources is necessary.

Therefore, it is important for nurses to get support from administrators and to participate in pre-discharge conferences.