This study was conducted to shed light on the actual conditions of home care and quality-of-life factors related to the burdens on families. For this purpose, a survey was carried out on main caretakers in the families who were using our home care support service. Fundamental information about the main caretakers and those who need care were garnered. In addition, WHO/QOL-26 and burdens for main caretakers were checked up on.The survey found that those who have looked after the sick or invalid for less than six months and those over five years keenly felt that they were shouldering a heavy burden. With the progression of dementia, the caretakers increasingly felt the burden getting heavier. Physical factors in QOL were linked to the burden which caretakers feel has to be borne, but psychological and social factors were not. This finding might have been ascribed to the fact that the persons surveyed were residents of the provincial city, part of which is rural. They were mostly old women and must have gained the support of their relatives. It is easy to assume that their role perception and sense of responsibility together with regional characteristics were reflected in psychological and social QOL factors.
Home care aspects ; SOCIAL ; Related ; Home care of patient ; Family Members

PURPOSE: Advocates for societal change and consumerism have been instrumental in popularizing patient involvement in various aspects of health care. Patient involvement in bedside handovers during shift changes should facilitate patient-centered care. This study's purpose was to explore Malaysian nurses' opinions about patient involvement during bedside handovers, and whether patient involvement during bedside handovers reflected patient-centered care. METHODS: A qualitative study with four focus-group discussions was conducted with 20 registered nurses from general wards in a Malaysian public hospital. Semi-structured interviews were used to elicit participants' opinions. NVivo 10 software was used for data management and content analysis was used to analyze the data. RESULTS: Several participants used inconsistent methods to involve patients in bedside handovers and others did not involve the patients at all. The participants' interpretations of the concept of patient-centered care were ambiguous; they claimed that patient involvement during bedside handovers was impractical and, therefore, not reflective of patient-centered care. Some nurses' subjective views of patient involvement as impractical during bedside handovers were manifested in their deliberate exclusion of patients from the handover process. CONCLUSIONS: Changes in patient involvement and nursing practices congruent with patient-centered care require that nurse educators in hospital settings reform nursing education to focus on fostering of communication skills needed to function in nurse-patient partnerships. Guidelines for patient involvement consistent with patient-centered values should be developed using ward nurses' subjective views and introduced to all registered nurses in practice.
Delivery of Health Care ; Education, Nursing ; Focus Groups ; Foster Home Care ; Hospitals, Public ; Humans ; Nurses ; Nursing ; Patient Handoff ; Patient Participation* ; Patient-Centered Care* ; Patients' Rooms

After hospital discharge, correct understanding and use of medications are key components of patient safety. The current discharge process does not provide adequate fail-safes to ensure quality post-discharge care. This often leads to preventable medication errors as well as nonadherence. Several barriers to successful discharge counselling, including use of medical jargon, lack of educational and administrative resources, time constraints, and low health literacy, contribute to ineffective communication between hospital physicians and patients. Other obstacles include inaccurate or incomplete documentation of the medication history, lack of social support, financial constraints, and poor transfer of information to outpatient physicians. Solutions to improve medication use in the transition period after hospital discharge require effective communication with patients through the use of easily understood language, highlighting key information, and ensuring patient comprehension through the "teach back" technique. More timely communication with outpatient physicians in addition to a more comprehensive transfer of information further facilitates the transition home. Finally, a systematic process of medication reconciliation also aids in decreasing the incidence of medication errors. Hospital-based physicians who attend to key details in the process of discharging patients can have a profound impact on improving medication adherence, avoiding medication errors, and decreasing adverse outcomes in the post-discharge period.
Home Care Services ; Humans ; Medication Errors ; prevention & control ; Patient Discharge ; standards ; Patient Education as Topic ; Pharmaceutical Preparations ; Safety Management ; United States

PURPOSE: This study was to identify symptoms and provided services of home-based cancer patients in J province. METHODS: 1,350 data poins for 167 home-based cancer patients were analyzed retrospectively. 13 symptoms and 39 service items were measured by tools for home-based cancer patients suggested by the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs. RESULTS: The mean number of provided services was 7.4+/-9.1. The most common symptoms were fatigue, anorexia, and pain. Patients whose duration after diagnosis was over 6 years, who had metastasis, or who underwent terminal care had more symptoms. Patient education, emotional and spiritual support, and basic assessment and services were provided most often. Frequency of provided services in patients whose duration after diagnosis was over 6 years or who had metastasis was higher. Services such as symptom and pain control, or death of the patient/the bereaved were provided with more support with patients who underwent terminal care. CONCLUSION: There were some differences in provided services according to medical characteristics. Patients experienced diverse symptoms, but services regarding these symptoms seemed to be insufficient. For more effective services, cooperation between organizations for home-based cancer patients is needed to form a better management model based on the merit of each facility or patient characteristics.
Anorexia ; Fatigue ; Home Care Services ; Humans ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Nursing Services ; Patient Education as Topic ; Retrospective Studies ; Terminal Care

OBJECTIVES: This study was performed to investigate the service needs of the beneficiaries who had enrolled in home-based management programs for cancer patients. METHODS: From March to May 2009, 676 cancer patients who were registered in home-based cancer patient management programs were selected as subjects for this study. The data were collected using a questionnaire along with a face-to-face interview performed by officers in charge of the home-based care programs of 47 regional health centers. Fifteen patients were excluded due to incomplete data, leaving 661 subjects who were ultimately enrolled in the study. RESULTS: The mean age of subjects was 64.0 +/- 12.5 years, and males comprised 45.1% (298/661) of the sample. The results of factor analysis for service needs showed that there were five main categories and Cronbach's alpha ranged from 0.593 to 0.890 for each factor. The service needs categories in order of importance were social support, information and education, psychological problems, physical symptoms and household chores. The service needs scores were significantly different when subjects were stratified by age, habitation, religion and disease classification. When we divided the subjects into complete remission, under treatment and terminally ill groups, the needs scores of the terminally ill patient group were significantly higher than those of the other groups (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Service provision based on patient and beneficiary needs could be an effective intervention to reduce the economic burden of cancer management and to improve the quality of life of cancer patients receiving home-based care. Therefore, it is recommended that individual cancer patient care programs be developed and administered according to patient age, habitation and disease severity.
Family Characteristics ; Fees and Charges ; Home Care Services ; Humans ; Male ; Needs Assessment ; Patient Care ; Quality of Life ; Terminally Ill ; Surveys and Questionnaires

The purpose of the study was to find out the level of knowledge, attitude, subjective norm, social interaction, and behavioral intention of nursing students regarding AIDS. It also identified factors that predict behavioral intentions and to provide care for patients with AIDS using Theory of Reasoned Action. The subjects consisted of 117 nursing students at three universities. Data was collected with self reporting in a questionnaire of with 67 items. Data was analyzed by an SPSS pc+ program. The results were as follows; 1. The mean age of the subjects was 20.98 years. The mean score for HIV/AIDS knowledge was 24.444 out of 32. Mostly Korean students were quite knowle- dgeable about the basic facts and symptoms of AIDS but confused about the made of transmission such as public toilets, preven- tion methods, and especially infection control. 2. This study found that social interaction, attitudes and subjective norms of Korean nursing students explained the intention to care for AIDS patients. The students who had a more positive attitude toward caring for AIDS patients and those who perceived more support from their significant others for caring the AIDS patients reported a more positive intention to care for AIDS patients. 3. In stepwise multiple regression analysis, 47.58% of the variance in AIDS patient care intention was accounted for by social interaction (33.41%), attitude (9.1%), and subjective norm (5.0 %). According to the finding of this study, and social interaction are the most significant predictors of intentions. Therefore it can be suggested that a HIV/AIDS prevention program should focus on transmission modes and prevention methods, especially in infection control. AIDS education efforts aimed at nursing students should place greater emphasis on correcting these kinds of misconceptions. Nursing intenvention for reducing fear of contagion, improving perception of social interaction, fostering positive attitudes and increasing intention to care for AIDS patients should be provided for nursing students. They also recommended that nursing students be adequately prepared to care for AIDS patients because of the increasing probability that they will encounter AIDS patients. Therefore it is important that education about HIV/AIDS should be incorporated within current undergraduate curriculum.
Curriculum ; Education ; Foster Home Care ; Humans ; Infection Control ; Intention* ; Interpersonal Relations ; Nursing* ; Patient Care ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Self Report ; Students, Nursing*

OBJECTIVES: 1) To determine elderly patients' preference regarding home versus hospital as the site of treatment of their medical illnesses. 2) To formulate guidelines at the VMMC out patient department on home care.
DESIGN: Descriptive study (survey).
PARTICIPANTS: One hundred fifty elderly patients seen at the VMMC out patient department, 65-82 years of age, diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), congestive heart failure (CHF) and pneumonia from September 2001 to July 2002.
INTERVENTION: Questionnaires consisting of a sequence of items were administered to the subjects seen at the out patient department, prompting participants to provide specific preference of care received in the home versus a hospital setting.
RESULTS: Of a total of 150 patients included in this study, 114 patients (76 percent) felt safer being treated in the hospital than at home. One hundred and twenty four patients (82.7 percent) reported that clinical recovery was faster in the hospital. One hundred patients (66.7 percent) believe that home treatment would consequently result in complications. One hundred and twenty four (82.7 percent) think that the promptness of an emergency response is delayed in the home.
CONCLUSION: This study shows that the elderly patients prefer the hospital rather than the home as the site of treatment of their medical illnesses.

Human ; Male ; Female ; Aged 80 And Over ; Aged ; Patient Preference ; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive ; Pneumonia ; Home Care Services ; Heart Failure

The purpose of this study is to develop an internet based hospice information service system as a solution to the problems identified in our previous studies. Databases and homepage were designed and developed for the information needed for the hospice care and these services were available through the Internet. The hospice information service system has three subsystems. Frrst subsystem, which is training and education for the hospice care personnel includes general hospice information, pain and symptom management, the role of hospice care program information, and hospice care standard. Second subsystem which is patient management includes patient's general information, medical record, nursing record, major symptoms and nursing care plan, statistical data management, and hospice care facilities. Third subsystem includes Q and A for patient, family members, and hospice care team members. The system was tested through providing hospice care to the terminally ill patients and their family members by home visiting nurses. Through this study, it was found that hospice information system is very effective for those who need hospice care at home. But in order for the system to be more effective, system needs to be upgraded with more information on spiritual and social welfare and specialists who provided spiritual care and social welfare need to be included in the hospice care team.
Education ; Home Care Services ; Hospice Care ; Hospices* ; House Calls ; Humans ; Information Services* ; Information Systems ; Internet* ; Medical Records ; Nursing Records ; Patient Care Planning ; Social Welfare ; Specialization ; Terminally Ill

PURPOSE: This study was intended to integrate the evidence of home care service intervention for mothers and children in vulnerable groups through an integrative literature review. METHODS: We searched the MEDLINE (PubMED), EMBASE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, CINAHL, DBpia databases. The quality of the articles was assessed by one doctoral researcher and verified by one professor of community health nursing who had participated in the systematic review of literature. A framework was developed to identify the intervention patterns in the selected papers and categorize various elements. The extracted intervention elements were grouped into potential themes, which were verified by assessors on whether they clearly reflected the interventions in the papers. RESULTS: Among 878 searched papers, we selected 16 papers after excluding literature that does not satisfy the selection criteria and quality evaluation. The intervention elements of 16 selected papers were categorized into six themes. The extracted intervention elements were divided into the themes of Patient-specific/Situation-specific care planning and intervention, Emphasis on self care competency, Intense home visit by developmental milestone, Reinforcing and modeling mother-child attachment, Communication and interaction across the intervention, Linkage with community resource and multidisciplinary approach. CONCLUSION: As a result of the analysis of proper interventions of home care services for mothers and children in vulnerable groups, it was found that it is necessary to consider indispensable intervention elements that can standardize the quality of home care services, and conduct studies on developing intervention programs based on the elements.
Child ; Child, Preschool ; Community Health Nursing ; Female ; Home Care Services* ; House Calls ; Humans ; Infant* ; Mothers* ; Patient Selection ; Pregnant Women* ; Self Care ; Vulnerable Populations

Patients with dysphagia often have difficulty in supplying adequate nutrition orally, and thus they often use gastrostomy for nutrition support. If the nutrition affects the deterioration of the disease, as in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the majority of patients will have a gastrostomy tube for proper nutrition. To prevent complications from gastrostomy tubes, it is important to educate the caregiver or patient about how to properly manage it. If these patients opt for home care because of financial or cultural reasons, it will be difficult for their healthcare team to observe them closely, leading to complications due to lax tube management. In this case, appropriate management education becomes more important. This paper reports an extremely rare case of duodenal intussusception caused by a migrated percutaneous radiologic gastrostomy (PRG) tube in a patient with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) using simultaneous oral and enteral nutrition. The patient was treated successfully with urgent tube removal using the air reduction maneuver. This case highlights the importance of gastrostomy management.
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis ; Caregivers ; Deglutition Disorders ; Education ; Enteral Nutrition ; Gastrostomy* ; Home Care Services ; Humans ; Intussusception* ; Motor Neuron Disease ; Patient Care Team