Educational Needs of and Anxiety Among Nurses Providing Home-Visit Bathing Care

Abstract

Many severely ill persons use home-visit bathing care, and nurses who provide home care are required to decide whether to bathe them as part of their tasks. However, nurses are anxious about providing home-visit bathing care because few educational opportunities are available about home-visit bathing. We conducted a questionnaire survey to clarify the situation regarding providing medical care with home-visit bathing and the educational needs of nurses who provide home-visit bathing.

The results showed that home-visit bathing care often involves medical care such as treatment of bedsores and administration of drugs. Most nurses engaged in such care were anxious about performing these duties, and many of them stated that they needed education on physical assessment and risk handling. Anxiety was associated with a perceived need for education (p<0.007), and a self-reported lack of knowledge (p<0.001) and skills (p<0.012). Therefore, providing nurses with knowledge and skills related to home-visit bathing may reduce their anxiety. Educational programs that consider the role of nurses in home-visit bathing care need to be developed.