Assessment of Distress and Quality of Life: A Comparison of Self-Assessments by Outpatients with a Schizopsychotic Illness and the Clinical Judgment of Nurses.

The aim of this study was to investigate how self-assessments of perceived distress and quality of life in patients with schizopsychotic illness are associated with nurse assessments of symptoms, function and life situation. Data were obtained through interviews that used evidence-based rating and visual analogue self-rating scales. Descriptive statistics, correlation and regression analyses were used to process the data. The results demonstrated that the patient self-ratings did not correlate with the nurse assessments, and the perceived distress was not affected by remission status. The findings indicate that patient self-assessments are not a sufficient basis for decisions regarding appropriate treatment interventions.

The impact of concordant communication in outpatient care planning - nurses' perspective.

AIM: To elucidate registered nurses' experiences of coordinated care planning in outpatient care. BACKGROUND: Coordinated care planning has been studied from the perspectives of both patients and nurses in inpatient care, but it is deficient in outpatient care. METHOD: Qualitative content analysis of interviews with 10 registered nurses participating in two focus groups. RESULTS: An overall theme was identified: creating concordant communication in relation to patient and health-care providers. The result is based on four categories and nine subcategories. CONCLUSIONS: Nurses need extraordinary communication skills to reach concordance in outpatient care planning. In addition to involving and supporting the patients and next of kin in the decision-making process, the outcome of the nursing process must be understood by colleagues and members of other professions and health-care providers (non-nursing). IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: An effective outpatient care-planning process requires that care managers understand the impact of communicating, transferring information and reaching consensus with other health-care providers, actively supporting employees in the outpatient care-planning process and contributing to the development of common goals and policy documents across organisational boundaries.