Abstract
Objective : To investigate the awareness and current status of community-centered interdisciplinary collaboration among healthcare professionals in a geriatric acute care hospital. We sought to acquire data for the development of possible measures to promote early hospital discharge among geriatric acute care patients.
Materials : Subjects comprised 245 nurses working in a geriatric acute care hospital.
Methods : A questionnaire was designed and distributed in a hospital to be completed by the respondents. The responses were collected in a drop-off box within the hospital.
Results : A total of 198 responses were collected; the response rate was 80.8% (98.5%). Nurses interact with patients and their families throughout their hospital stay, and therefore play a central role in the promotion of early hospital discharge. For these reasons, the study analysis focused on nurses. The results revealed that current nursing activities for community-centered interdisciplinary collaboration primarily involved sending summaries, and conferences were the least common of the activities. Interest in community-centered interdisciplinary collaboration was extremely high among nurses, despite their limited knowledge of community resources and systems. Nurses whose awareness of community-centered interdisciplinary collaboration was high had a greater knowledge of community resources and systems, and they, in turn, had more experience referring patients to community-based support services.
Conclusions :
1. Nurses have a high level of interest in community-centered interdisciplinary collaboration and the condition of discharged patients.
2. Knowledge of community-centered interdisciplinary collaboration is relatively low among nurses.
3. There is almost no association between nurses' knowledge level of community-centered interdisciplinary collaboration and the number of years working as a nurse.
4. Nurses who have a high level of knowledge of community resources and systems refer patients to community support services at a higher rate than those whose knowledge level is low.
There is a need to increase awareness of community-centered interdisciplinary collaboration in the nursing profession, along with making full use of the Interdisciplinary Team Discharge Planning Room, to develop measures for promoting early hospital discharge among geriatric acute care patients.
