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. 2010 Feb 18:10:e036.
doi: 10.5334/ijic.508.

Cultural diversity between hospital and community nurses: implications for continuity of care

Ragnhild Hellesø  1 , May Solveig Fagermoen
Affiliations

Cultural diversity between hospital and community nurses: implications for continuity of care

Ragnhild Hellesø et al. Int J Integr Care. .

Abstract

Introduction: Health care systems and nurses need to take into account the increasing number of people who need post-hospital nursing care in their homes. Nurses have taken a pivotal role in discharge planning for frail patients. Despite considerable effort and focus on how to undertake hospital discharge successfully, the problem of ensuring continuity of care remains.

Challenges: In this paper, we highlight and discuss three challenges that seem to be insufficiently articulated when hospital and community nurses interact during discharge planning. These three challenges are: how local practices circumvent formal structures, how nurses' different perspectives influence their assessment of patients' need for post-hospital care, and how nurses have different understanding of what it means to be 'ready to be discharged'.

Discussion: We propose that nurses need to discuss these challenges and their implications for nursing care so as to be ready to face changing demands for health care in future.

Keywords: continuity of care; discharge planning; hospital and home care nurses' interaction; interaction challenges.

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