Cuidados enfermeros para el abordaje de la salud comunitaria en población indígena de la Amazonia peruana / Nursing care to address community health of the indigenous population in the Peruvian Amazon

La comunidad nativa Shonori la componen familias asháninkas de la Amazonia peruana. Este trabajo aborda la salud comunitaria mediante una valoración y plan de cuidados de enfermería basado en el modelo de competencia cultural de Purnell y la taxonomía estandarizada enfermera (NANDA, NIC, NOC). La valoración se sustenta en 12 dominios relacionados con la herencia y ecología biocultural, comunicación, roles y organización familiar, conductas de riesgo, nutrición, embarazo, rituales de muerte y espiritualidad y prácticas y proveedores de cuidados de salud. Se detecta como diagnóstico una «salud deficiente de la comunidad relacionada con recursos insuficientes y manifestada por problemas de salud padecidos por la comunidad». Los criterios de resultados esperados en el plan de cuidados son: competencia social, estado de salud de la comunidad y control del riesgo social relacionado con las enfermedades transmisibles. Las intervenciones consisten en fomentar la salud comunitaria, analizar e identificar la situación de salud y riesgos, y controlar y proteger de enfermedades transmisibles y de riesgos ambientales. Intervenciones de la red pública de abastecimiento de agua y subvenciones para el apoyo agrícola y a las viviendas permitieron disminuir vectores, sufragar gastos del abastecimiento de agua segura y comprar alimentos para mejorar la nutrición infantil. El uso de la medicina tradicional fue potenciado y se desarrollaron campañas de salud y educación sexual en coordinación con el sistema oficial de salud. Se hizo un seguimiento durante 40 días, que corroboró la mejora de la salud comunitaria y la necesidad de un abordaje grupal con todos los actores

The native community Shonori is made up of Ashaninka families of the Peruvian Amazon. This paper addresses community health through an assessment and nursing care plan based on the Purnell cultural competency model and the standardized nurse taxonomy (NANDA, NIC, NOC). The assessment is based on 12 domains related to inheritance and biocultural ecology, communication, roles and family organization, risk behaviours, nutrition, pregnancy, death and spirituality rituals, and health care providers and practices. A diagnosis of «Poor health of the community r /t insufficient resources m/b health problems suffered by the community» is detected. The expected results criteria in the care plan are: social competence, community health status and control of social risk related to communicable diseases. The interventions consist of promoting community health, analyzing and identifying the health situation and risks, and controlling and protecting from communicable diseases and environmental risks. Interventions of the public water supply network and subsidies for agricultural and housing support, allowed vectors to be reduced, costs of safe water supply to be covered, and food to be bought to improve child nutrition. The use of traditional medicine was enhanced and health and sexual education campaigns were carried out in coordination with the official health system. A follow-up was carried out for 40 days, corroborating the improvement of community health, and the need for a group approach with all actors

Retaining participants in community-based health research: a case example on standardized planning and reporting.

BACKGROUND: Effective strategies for participant retention are critical in health research to ensure validity, generalizability and efficient use of resources. Yet standardized guidelines for planning and reporting on retention efforts have been lacking. As with randomized controlled trial (RCT) and systematic review (SR) protocols, retention protocols are an opportunity to improve transparency and rigor. An RCT being conducted in British Columbia (BC), Canada provides a case example for developing a priori retention frameworks for use in protocol planning and reporting. METHODS: The BC Healthy Connections Project RCT is examining the effectiveness of a nurse home-visiting program in improving child and maternal outcomes compared with existing services. Participants (N = 739) were girls and young women preparing to parent for the first time and experiencing socioeconomic disadvantage. Quantitative data were collected upon trial entry during pregnancy and during five follow-up interviews until participants' children reached age 2 years. A framework was developed to guide retention of this study population throughout the RCT. We reviewed relevant literature and mapped essential retention activities across the study planning, recruitment and maintenance phases. Interview completion rates were tracked. RESULTS: Results from 3302 follow-up interviews (in-person/telephone) conducted over 4 years indicate high completion rates: 90% (n = 667) at 34 weeks gestation; and 91% (n = 676), 85% (n = 626), 80% (n = 594) and 83% (n = 613) at 2, 10, 18 and 24 months postpartum, respectively. Almost all participants (99%, n = 732) provided ongoing consent to access administrative health data. These results provide preliminary data on the success of the framework. CONCLUSIONS: Our retention results are encouraging given that participants were experiencing considerable socioeconomic disadvantage. Standardized retention planning and reporting may therefore be feasible for health research in general, using the framework we have developed. Use of standardized retention protocols should be encouraged in research to promote consistency across diverse studies, as now happens with RCT and SR protocols. Beyond this, successful retention approaches may help inform health policy-makers and practitioners who also need to better reach, engage and retain underserved populations. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT01672060. Registered on 24 August 2012.

Community nutrition nurse specialist role: a service improvement.

This article describes the introduction of a community nutrition specialist nurse role in Buckinghamshire. The need for this role arose from issues experienced by the large but busy district nursing team (caseload of >300 patients per day) in home enteral feeding management and troubleshooting. The post holder was appointed to support community, hospital, dietitians and industry home care nurses with nutritional screening in the community and home enteral feeding, with a greater focus on the former. The post holder was involved in the development of a community version of MUST along with a care pathway and the design of a training programme to improve district nurses' knowledge and confidence in managing malnutrition in the community. The post holder is also involved providing patients personalised advice for managing malnutrition and in referrals to the community dietetics team. Such innovations in staffing are vital if the negative impact of malnutrition on patients and the health service is to be curtailed.

Nurse home visitation with vulnerable families in rural areas: A qualitative case file review.

OBJECTIVE: Nurse home visiting may address challenges and resource disparities that threaten maternal and infant well-being in rural areas, but little is known about United States' program implementation. This qualitative study explored how family and community characteristics affected rural nurse home visiting. SAMPLE: The sample for content analysis included families beginning services in 2010-2011 living in the rural counties with the highest caseloads (433 families). DESIGN: Electronic nurse home visiting case files from three rural counties were analyzed using a content analysis approach. The partner agency provided input on key constructs of interest but independent coding was also done to capture additional themes. Quantitative county level data and comments from member checking informed interpretation. Member checking included individual nurses serving the selected counties (n = 3) and input from an agency level supervisory meeting for validation. RESULTS: Concerns of families served (e.g., mental health) may not be unique to rural areas, but challenges to accessing resources and constellation of needs were. Nurses adapted engagement and service strategies to meet these needs. CONCLUSION: Agencies serving rural areas should allocate resources and adapt training to support nurses based on unique community profiles. More research on rural nurse home visiting practice and outcomes is needed.

Enfermería familiar y comunitaria, cronología de una especialidad / Family and community nursing, chronology of a specialty

Desde que en 1987 se publicase el primer real decreto que regulaba las especialidades de enfermería hasta hoy mismo han transcurrido más de 30 años. Es el real decreto publicado en 2005 el que realmente permitió el desarrollo formativo de parte de las especialidades reconocidas en el mismo (enfermería familiar y comunitaria, enfermería pediátrica, enfermería geriátrica y enfermería del trabajo) ya que las enfermeras especialistas obstétrico-ginecológicas (matronas) y las especialistas de salud mental ya habían iniciado sus procesos formativos por vía de enfermero interno residente desde tiempo atrás. Hoy día, la formación de la especialidad de enfermería familiar y comunitaria ha logrado implementarse en todas las comunidades autónomas, pero no ha tenido idéntico desarrollo en cuanto a la incorporación de las especialistas en las instituciones sanitarias de los respectivos servicios de salud de las comunidades autónomas. Esta circunstancia está generando una gran desmotivación entre las enfermeras comunitarias, tanto las especialistas como quienes esperan poder obtener el título a través de la prueba excepcional. Muchos de los objetivos alcanzados hasta la fecha han sido posibles gracias al trabajo de las sociedades científicas de enfermería comunitaria (Asociación de Enfermería Comunitaria [AEC] y Federación de Asociaciones de Enfermería Comunitaria y Atención Primaria [FAECAP]), que han permitido avanzar y que el proceso no se paralizase, aunque aún son muchos los logros por alcanzar en los que las citadas sociedades científicas siguen trabajando. En una sociedad en la que el cuidado enfermero es cada vez más necesario y demandado, este debe tener una mayor consideración y posición en las políticas sanitarias, ya que ha demostrado su eficacia, y puede ser el modelo que permita hacer sostenible el sistema sanitario y, por tanto, las enfermeras especialistas en enfermería familiar y comunitaria deben dejar de ser una oportunidad para pasar a ser una realidad

More the 30 years have passed since the first Royal Decree that regulated nursing specialties was published in 1987. It is the Royal Decree published in 2005 that really allowed the training development of part of the specialties recognized in it (family and community nursing, paediatric nursing, geriatric nursing and occupational health nursing) since the obstetric-gynaecological specialist nurses (midwives) and mental health specialists had long since already started their training processes through the resident internal nurse model, today, training in the specialty of family and community nursing has been implemented in all the autonomous communities, but has not had the same development in terms of the incorporation of specialists in the health institutions of the respective health services of the autonomous communities. This circumstance is generating a great lack of motivation among community nurses, both specialists and those who hope to obtain the qualification through a specialty exam. Many of the objectives achieved to date have been made possible thanks to the work of the scientific societies of community nursing (Association of Community Nursing [AEC] and Federation of Associations of Community Nursing and Primary Care [FAECAP]), which have allowed progress to be made and the process not to be halted, although there are still many achievements to be made on which the aforementioned scientific societies continue to work. In a society in which nursing care is increasingly necessary and demanded, it must have greater consideration and position in health policies, since it has demonstrated its effectiveness and can be the model that allows the health system to be sustainable. Therefore, nurses who specialize in family and community nursing must cease constituting an opportunity and become a reality

What are essential elements of high-quality palliative care at home? An interview study among patients and relatives faced with advanced cancer.

BACKGROUND: In the Netherlands, general practitioners (GPs) and community nurses play a central role in the palliative care for home-dwelling patients with advanced cancer and their relatives. To optimize the palliative care provision at home, it is important to have insight in the elements that patients and relatives consider essential for high-quality palliative care, and whether these essentials are present in the actual care they receive. METHODS: Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 patients with advanced cancer and 14 relatives. The participants discussed their experiences with the care and support they received from the GP and community nurses, and their views on met and unmet needs. Interview data were analysed according to the principles of thematic analysis. RESULTS: Patients as well as relatives considered it important that their GP and community nursing staff are medically proficient, available, person-focused and proactive. Also, proper information transfer between care professionals and clear procedures when asking for certain resources or services were considered essential for good palliative care at home. Most interviewees indicated that these essential elements were generally present in the care they received. However, the requirements of 'proper information transfer between professionals' and 'clear and rapid procedures' were mentioned as more difficult to meet in actual practice. Patients and relatives also emphasized that an alert and assertive attitude on their own part was vital in ensuring they received the care they need. They expressed worries about other people who are less vigilant regarding the care they receive, or who have no family to support them in this. CONCLUSIONS: Medical proficiency, availability, a focus on the person, proper information transfer between professionals, clear procedures and proactivity on the part of GPs and community nursing staff are considered essential for good palliative care at home. Improvements are particularly warranted with regard to collaboration and information transfer between professionals, and current bureaucratic procedures. It is important for care professionals to ensure that the identified essential elements for high-quality palliative care at home are met, particularly for patients and relatives who are not so alert and assertive.

Implementation and refinement of a community health nurse model of support for people experiencing homelessness in Australia: a collaborative approach.

OBJECTIVE: To implement, refine and evaluate an assertive community health nurse (CHN) model of support for people experiencing or at risk of homelessness that aims to improve their access to health and social care services. METHODS: Participants were recruited between 30 August 2013 and 31 October 2015, including clients residing in a Victorian southern Melbourne metropolitan suburb, who registered with the CHN and stakeholders from local service provider organisations engaging with the CHN. A collaborative approach using demographic data collected from client records to identify need and measure the time clients took to engage and access services, qualitative data gathered during Stakeholder Advisory Group meetings and feedback from face-to-face interviews with service organisation representatives informed refinement of the CHN model. RESULTS: Thirty-nine clients (22 Female, mean age 50±11 years) participated. Clients engaged with services after an average of seven CHN visits. Eighteen clients independently accessed services after approximately 9 weeks, including medical and housing services. Client need and feedback from 20 stakeholders and three community nurses contributed to refining the model to ensure it met local needs and informed the necessary organisational framework, the CHN role and the attributes, knowledge and the skills required. CONCLUSION: A collaborative CHN model of support for people at risk of or experiencing homelessness has been articulated. Evaluation of the role demonstrated increased client engagement with health and community services and social activities. Additionally, the CHN assisted other service providers in their delivery of care to this very complex client group.

Building the English health visitor workforce as a result of the Health Visitor Implementation Plan 2011-2015: a survey study of career progression and retention for newly qualified health visitors.

AIM: This study aimed to explore the extent to which health visitors who trained and qualified in both Greater London and the South West of England between September 2011 and January 2016 were employed in health visiting posts and have remained in the profession. BACKGROUND: In 2011, the UK Government launched the Health Visitor Implementation Plan 'A Call to Action' (Department of Health, 2011) to develop the health visitor workforce by training 4200 health visitors over a four-year period. By April 2015, 4000 additional health visitors were trained, but the total workforce has since fallen back to pre-Implementation Plan size. METHODS: Data were collected using a survey, completed online by participants. All participants had undertaken a health visitor education programme at one of two participating universities. The survey was distributed in January 2017 and completed by 180 individuals. Quantitative data were analysed using SPSS; association was assessed using individual chi-square tests or Fisher's exact test. Free-text responses were thematically analysed. FINDINGS: Most (153; 87%) participants were still working as health visitors. Length of time spent working in the community prior to completing health visitor training was associated with staying in the role ( χ2 (with Fisher's exact test = 7.998, P = .027). Current pay was associated with attrition from the health visitor workforce ( χ2 (with Fisher's exact test) = 67.559, P < .001.). The majority who had left the health visitor role were on higher pay bands in their new post compared to those that had stayed (12; 60%). Bronfenbrenner's (1979) theory of socio-ecological development was used as a framework to interpret the results. While participants made an active choice to join the profession, leaving was influenced more by factors outside their control. To influence health visitor retention, both local and strategic changes are required.

Improving Retention of Home Health Nurses: Fostering Outcome Sustainability Through an Innovative Orientation and Mentorship Program.

Home healthcare plays an increasingly vital role in contemporary postacute healthcare. Staffing instability and lack of perceived organizational support is a stimulus for nursing attrition from the organization with far-reaching impact on staff morale, patient care, agency budgets, and relationships with other healthcare settings. The purpose of this article is to describe a redesign of an agency's nursing orientation and the development of a mentorship program for newly hired home healthcare nurses within a large Midwestern integrated health system. During this time frame, 154 nurses completed the newly designed orientation program and, of those, 91 participated in the mentorship program. In this article, we evaluate 1-year new-hire nursing retention rates over a 4-year period, examine new-hire job satisfaction and perceptions of preceptors and mentors during their first year, and discuss issues of outcome sustainability. Agency-wide turnover rates for all home healthcare nurses decreased from 15.4% in 2016 to 10.1% in 2018, demonstrating the associated impact of these initiatives on staffing stabilization.

Using the TIDieR checklist to describe health visitor support for mothers with mental health problems: Analysis of a cross-sectional survey.

At least half of the 20% of mothers who experience mental health problems (MHPs) during pregnancy or after birth are not receiving the help they need that will lead to recovery. In order to identify where improvements need to be made, it is necessary to describe exactly what is being done and the barriers and facilitators that compromise or enhance optimal care. The majority of mothers experience mild to moderate anxiety or depression. The expectation is that primary care professionals, such as health visitors (HVs), can provide the support they need that will lead to recovery. The aim of this study was to explore the views of HVs regarding the content and purpose of an intervention to support mothers with MHPs, described as 'listening visits' (LVs). A link to an online survey was offered to the members and champions of the Institute of Health Visiting (n = 9,474) March-May 2016. The survey was completed by 1,599 (17%) of the target population, of whom 85% were offering LVs. The Template for Intervention Description and Replication (TIDieR) checklist was used to provide a framework to describe commonalities and variations in practice. There appeared to be a shared understanding of the rationale for LVs but a lack of agreement about what the intervention should be called, the techniques that should be used and the duration, frequency and expected outcomes of the intervention. Contextual factors such as staff shortages; conflicting priorities; the needs and circumstances of mothers; the capability and motivation of HVs; inadequate training and supervision; and the absence of clear guidance contributed to variations in perceptions and practice. There are many ways in which the HV contribution to the assessment and management of mothers with MHPs could be improved. The intervention delivered by HVs needs to be more clearly articulated. The contextual factors influencing competent and consistent practice also need to be addressed.

"Las fuentes activa". Proyecto de recomendación de activos en una comunidad / "Las Fuentes Activa": A project for Social Prescribing in a Community

La salud no es un elemento aislado del entorno, ya que se ve influenciada por los determinantes sociales de la salud. En la actualidad hay una falta de coordinación entre los servicios sociosanitarios que impide que se abarquen correctamente las necesidades de la población. El enfoque de activos en salud promueve que las personas y comunidades sean capaces de utilizar sus propios recursos para promover su salud y bienestar. En el presente trabajo se recorren las etapas llevadas a cabo para la elaboración de un proyecto de recomendación de activos comunitarios en el barrio de Las Fuentes, en Zaragoza, para la derivación de pacientes a recursos comunitarios por parte de profesionales sociosanitarios desde las consultas de Atención Primaria: 1) Realizar un análisis de las características de la población; 2) Identificar las necesidades de la población; 2) Definir las personas destinatarias del proyecto; 3) Efectuar un mapeo de activos del barrio; 4) Determinar los recursos del barrio y catalogarlos en una plataforma electrónica habilitada para el proceso de recomendación de activos; y 5) Definir el proceso de recomendación activos y su evaluación. Con la implementación de dicho proyecto se espera promover actuaciones dirigidas a la promoción y prevención de la salud, disminuir la hiperfrecuentación y medicalización en la Atención Primaria, reducir el aislamiento social vinculando a las personas mayores a la comunidad, mejorar también los conocimientos de los recursos del barrio por parte de los profesionales del centro de salud promoviendo el apoyo social y establecer un sistema de recomendación de activos protocolizado desde el centro de salud

Health is not an element isolated from the environment, because it is influenced by the social drivers of health. Currently, there is lack of coordination between social and healthcare services, which prevents a correct coverage of the population needs. The Social Prescribing approach encourages the ability of persons and the community to use their own resources in order to promote their health and wellbeing. This article goes through the stages conducted for the preparation of a Social Prescribing Project in the Las Fuentes area, in Zaragoza, for the referral of patients to community resources by social and health professionals from Primary Care: 1) To analyze the characteristics of the population; 2) To identify the needs of the population; 3) To define the persons targeted by the project; 4) To map the services in the area; 5) To determine the resources in the area and classify them in an electronic platform enabled to process Social Prescribing; and 6) To define the Social Prescribing Process and its evaluation. It is expected that the implementation of this project will promote actions targeted to health promotion and prevention, reduce the excessive frequency of visits and medicalization in Primary Care, reduce social isolation by linking elderly persons to the Community, improve also the knowledge of the resources in the area by the public health center professionals, thus promoting social support, and establish a Social Prescribing System under protocol by the public health center

Home level bureaucracy: moving beyond the 'street' to uncover the ways that place shapes the ways that community public health nurses implement domestic abuse policy.

Street-level bureaucracy is an increasingly useful way to understand how strategic policy is implemented in day-to-day practice. This approach has uncovered the ways that individual health and social care practitioners work within institutional constraints to influence policy implementation at the micro-level. Nonetheless, despite the diversity of settings where these street-level bureaucrats (SLBs) work, little attention has been focused on the impact of place on policy delivery. This paper draws on empirical research to examine the ways that delivering government domestic abuse policy in the intimate space of the family home shapes the delivery of strategic policy in the everyday. Drawing on qualitative research with Health Visitors (HVs) in the UK in 2016, the study findings illuminate the ways that the material, socio-spatial and idealised boundaries of the family home shape the implementation of policy. Key themes in the HV's narratives emerged as they described themselves as both a danger and in danger in the family home. In challenging the ontological security of the home (Giddens 1990) - privacy, security and control are key concepts here - HVs described how they shape their actions to achieve policy outcomes while simultaneously managing threats to the home, to professional identity and to self.

Risk assessment practices among home visiting nurses and child protection caseworkers in Colorado, United States: A qualitative investigation.

Nurses and caseworkers engage in assessments with the families they serve. Nurse home visitors from Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP) improve maternal-child health outcomes with first-time low-income mothers through care, education and support. In the United States, Child Protective Services (CPS) are state-level governmental agencies that protect children, including responding to reports of child maltreatment. This paper aimed to characterise similarities and differences in risk assessment practices between NFP nurses and CPS caseworkers in Colorado, United States. Using a grounded theory approach, we conducted in-depth qualitative interviews with 112 NFP and CPS workers from seven Colorado NFP sites from 2013 to 2015. Study sites were purposefully selected based on size, structure, geography and degree of collaboration with CPS. We conducted interviews first with NFP sites and used snowball sampling to recruit CPS workers. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, validated and then coded in NVivo 10. Memo writing was conducted to organise and link concepts within the theme of risk assessment. NFP and CPS workers emphasised the importance of risk assessment in their respective practices. Although there were similarities in the types of risks assessed, we found variations in work processes, operational definitions and methods of risk assessment between the two organisations that impacted inter-organisational collaboration to serve high-risk mothers and their children. NFP and CPS workers may have different roles and responsibilities but their underlying goals are the same - to keep children and their families safe and healthy. By understanding these similarities and differences in practice, there lies potential to improve collaboration between home visiting programmes and child welfare to provide integrated service delivery of high-risk families and prevention of future child maltreatment.

Women's views of continuity of information provided during and after pregnancy: A qualitative interview study.

Straightforward transfer of care from pregnancy to the postpartum period is associated with health benefits and is desired by women worldwide. Underpinning this transfer of care is the sharing of information between healthcare professionals and the provision of consistent information to women. In this qualitative study, two aspects of continuity of information were examined; first the information passed on from midwife to health visitor regarding a woman and her baby before the health visitor meets the woman postnatally and second, the consistency of information received by women from these two healthcare professionals (the main healthcare providers during and after pregnancy in England). To be eligible for the study, women had to have had a baby in England within 12 months prior to the interview. Participants also needed to be able to read and speak English and be over 18 years old. Recruitment of participants was via word of mouth and social media. Twenty-nine mothers were interviewed of whom 19 were first time mothers. The interviews took place in the summer and autumn of 2016 and were transcribed verbatim and analysed using Framework Analysis. Two overarching themes were identified: not feeling listened to and information inconsistencies. Women reported little experience of midwives and health visitors sharing information about their care, forcing women to repeat information. This made women feel not listened to and participants recommended that healthcare professionals share information; prioritising information about labour, mental health, and chronic conditions. Women had mixed experiences regarding receiving information from midwives and health visitors, with examples of both consistent and inconsistent information received. To avoid inconsistent information, joint appointments were recommended. Findings from this study clearly suggest that better communication pathways need to be developed and effectively implemented for midwives and health visitors to improve the care that they provide to women.

Health Information Exchange of Medication Lists: Hospital Discharge to Home Healthcare.

Nurses report significant gaps in communication among patients discharged from the hospital with home healthcare (HHC) services. The aim of this pilot study was to quantify the contents of HHC admission packets used to guide nurses' first home visit after hospital discharge. We evaluated 20 randomly selected charts of older adults admitted to HHC after a hospitalization for heart failure. Admission packets contained nearly 50 pages of material, which frequently included duplicate documents printed from the hospital-based electronic health record (EHR). Despite the plethora of documents, most packets omitted key information, such as patients' cognitive and functional status, and even discharge summaries, which would be relevant and actionable for HHC nurses. Moreover, admission packets contained multiple, often discordant, EHR-generated medication lists, which makes reconciliation challenging for nurses and puts vulnerable patients at risk for adverse drug events. Overall, there is an urgent need to improve health information exchange between hospitals and HHC agencies, which will simultaneously promote nurse efficiency and patient safety.

Eliciting nurses' perspectives to improve health information exchange between hospital and home health care.

Despite patient safety initiatives to improve care transitions, prior research largely neglects to elicit feedback from home health nurses regarding health information exchange. The goal of this quality improvement study was to identify opportunities to facilitate information transfer during hospital-to-home-health-care transitions for older adults with heart failure. We conducted focus groups with 19 nurses employed by a single healthcare system using two commercially available electronic health record (EHR) vendors. We analyzed interview transcripts following an immersion/crystallization approach to identify themes. Average participants were females in their mid-fifties with 15 years of home health experience. Nurses reported challenges with hospital-to-home-health-care information exchange, specifically: 1) poor medication management, 2) ineffective communication, 3) technology issues, and 4) patient factors. Nurses identified several opportunities for improvement, including discordant EHR-generated medication lists, which may be amenable to technological solutions. Local quality improvement efforts should incorporate nurses' suggestions and leverage existing best practices.

Which client characteristics predict home-care needs? Results of a survey study among Dutch home-care nurses.

Fee-for-service, funding care on an hourly rate basis, creates an incentive for home-care providers to deliver high amounts of care. Under casemix funding, in contrast, clients are allocated-based on their characteristics-to homogenous, hierarchical groups, which are subsequently funded to promote more effective and efficient care. The first step in developing a casemix model is to understand which client characteristics are potential predictors of home-care needs. Nurses working in home care (i.e. home-care nurses) have a good insight into clients' home-care needs. This study was conducted in co-operation with the Dutch Nurses' Association and the Dutch Healthcare Authority. Based on international literature, 35 client characteristics were identified as potential predictors of home-care needs. In an online survey (May, 2017), Dutch home-care nurses were asked to score these characteristics on relevance, using a 9-point Likert scale. They were subsequently asked to identify the top five client characteristics. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics. The survey was completed by 1,007 home-care nurses. Consensus on relevance was achieved for 15 client characteristics, with "terminal phase" being scored most relevant, and "sex" being scored as the least relevant. Relevance of the remaining 20 characteristics was uncertain. Additionally, based on the ranking, "ADL functioning" was ranked as most relevant. According to home-care nurses, both biomedical and psychosocial client characteristics need to be taken into account when predicting home-care needs. Collaboration between clinical practice, policy development, and science is necessary to realise a funding model, to work towards the Triple Aim (improved health, better care experience, and lower costs).

'I believe high blood pressure can kill me:' using the PEN-3 Cultural Model to understand patients' perceptions of an intervention to control hypertension in Ghana.

OBJECTIVES: Currently in Ghana, there is an on-going task-shifting strategy in which nurses are trained in hypertension management. While this study will provide useful information on the viability of this approach, it is not clear how patients in the intervention perceive hypertension, the task-shifting strategy, and its effects on blood pressure management. The objective of this paper is to examine patients' perceptions of hypertension and hypertension management in the context of an on-going task-shifting intervention to manage blood pressure control in Ghana. DESIGN: Forty-two patients participating in the Task Shifting Strategy for Hypertension program (23 males, 19 females, and mean age 61. 7 years) completed in-depth, qualitative interviews. Interviews were transcribed, and key words and phrases were extracted and coded using the PEN-3 Cultural Model as a guide through open and axial coding techniques, thus allowing rich exploration of the data. RESULTS: Emergent themes included patients' perceptions of hypertension, which encompassed misperceptions of hypertension and blood pressure control. Additional themes included enablers and barriers to hypertension management, and how the intervention nurtured lifestyle change associated with blood pressure control. Primary enabling factors included the supportive nature of TASSH nurses, while notable barriers were financial constraints and difficulty accessing medication. Nurturing factors included the motivational interviewing and patient counseling which instilled confidence in the patients that they could make lasting behavior changes. CONCLUSIONS: This study offers a unique perspective of blood pressure control by examining how patients view an on-going task-shifting initiative for hypertension management. The results of this study shed light on factors that can help and hinder individuals in low-resource settings with long-term blood pressure management.