The content of the oral daily reports at a long-term ward before and after staff training in integrity promoting care

Abstract

This study was based on the assumption that the daily report between different caregivers are of great importance for the quality of the care delivered and that they guide the content of it. The staff of a nursing home ward were given training in integrity promoting care and special training in reporting. After a three months' intervention period effects on patients and staff were evaluated and compared with a control ward. Positive patient outcomes have been reported earlier. The aim of this study was to describe the content of the oral daily reports between staff members in long-term care and investigate whether some changes occurred after training that might have contributed to the positive results for the patients. Another aim was to assess whether the staff regarded the reports as satisfactory. Oral reports were tape-recorded before and after staff training. A content analysis by a scheme based on Henderson's description of components of nursing care and a form analysis based on the nursing process were made. The reports were highly task oriented and the staff often discussed the patients' reaction in vague and general terms. The steps of the nursing process did not seem to be used. The answers to a questionnaire about the staff's satisfaction with the oral reports showed some increasing dissatisfaction and also comments about needs of more collaboration between different groups of personnel. More messages were given per report after the intervention compared to the control ward and the messages with psychosocial content had doubled.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)