A study to compare two models of community psychiatric nursing care delivery

Abstract

This study analyses data collected by the community psychiatric nursing team in the Bloomsbury Health Authority. After the 1982 National Health Service reorganization one large CPN team was created from two smaller ones each operating a separate mode of care delivery. Four CPNs were based at a day hospital and five CPNs worked from primary health care bases. Regular statistics collected by all the nurses were used to examine two hypotheses. First, there is a type of client seen by a CPN who varies according to the main base from which the nurse operates. Second, that there were differences in individual CPN 'caseload activity' that are determined by main work-setting. The results indicated that the characteristics of the two client-referral samples were indeed different using various measures of social deprivation and isolation. Substantial variations in 'caseload activity' between the two teams were also found, the largest difference being the number of hours spent in clinical activity, face to face with the client. Various implications of these findings for the overall planning and management of the CPN team are discussed. The overall conclusion reached is that, as Mangen & Griffith have suggested, the planning of CPN services requires the systematic collection of evaluative data on which to base future policies.