TY - JOUR
T1 - Exploring nurse-sensitive patient outcomes in Dutch district nursing care
T2 - A survey study
AU - Veldhuizen, Jessica D.
AU - Schuurmans, Marieke J.
AU - Mikkers, Misja C.
AU - Bleijenberg, Nienke
N1 - Funding Information:
Internal PhD Grant at the University of Applied Sciences Utrecht—no grant number available.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors. Health and Social Care in the Community published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
PY - 2022/11
Y1 - 2022/11
N2 - There is a lack of evidence to guide district nurses in using nurse-sensitive patient outcomes as it is unclear how these outcomes are currently used in daily district nursing practice. Therefore, we aimed to explore (1) which nurse-sensitive patient outcomes are measured and how these outcomes are measured, (2) how district nurses use the outcomes to learn from and improve current practice and (3) the barriers and facilitators to using outcomes in current district nursing practice. An exploratory cross-sectional survey study was conducted. The survey was distributed online among nurses working for various district nursing care organisations across the Netherlands. The responses from 132 nurses were analysed, demonstrating that different instruments or questionnaires are available and used in district nursing care as outcome measures. The nurse-sensitive patient outcomes most often measured with validated instruments are pain using the Numeric Rating Scale or Visual Analogue Scale, delirium using the Delirium Observation Scale, weight loss using the Short Nutritional Assessment Questionnaire and caregiver burden using the Caregiver Strain Index or a Dutch equivalent. Falls and client satisfaction with delivered care are most often measured using unvalidated outcome measures. The other nurse-sensitive outcomes are measured in different ways. Outcomes are measured, reported and fed back to the nursing team multiple times and in various ways to learn from and improve current practice. In general, nurses have a positive attitude towards using nurse-sensitive outcomes in practice, but there is a lack of facilitation to support them. Because insight into how nurses can and should be supported is still lacking, exploring their needs in further research is desirable. Additionally, due to the high variation in the utilisation of outcomes in current practice, it is recommended to create more uniformity by developing (inter)national guidelines on using nurse-sensitive patient outcomes in district nursing care.
AB - There is a lack of evidence to guide district nurses in using nurse-sensitive patient outcomes as it is unclear how these outcomes are currently used in daily district nursing practice. Therefore, we aimed to explore (1) which nurse-sensitive patient outcomes are measured and how these outcomes are measured, (2) how district nurses use the outcomes to learn from and improve current practice and (3) the barriers and facilitators to using outcomes in current district nursing practice. An exploratory cross-sectional survey study was conducted. The survey was distributed online among nurses working for various district nursing care organisations across the Netherlands. The responses from 132 nurses were analysed, demonstrating that different instruments or questionnaires are available and used in district nursing care as outcome measures. The nurse-sensitive patient outcomes most often measured with validated instruments are pain using the Numeric Rating Scale or Visual Analogue Scale, delirium using the Delirium Observation Scale, weight loss using the Short Nutritional Assessment Questionnaire and caregiver burden using the Caregiver Strain Index or a Dutch equivalent. Falls and client satisfaction with delivered care are most often measured using unvalidated outcome measures. The other nurse-sensitive outcomes are measured in different ways. Outcomes are measured, reported and fed back to the nursing team multiple times and in various ways to learn from and improve current practice. In general, nurses have a positive attitude towards using nurse-sensitive outcomes in practice, but there is a lack of facilitation to support them. Because insight into how nurses can and should be supported is still lacking, exploring their needs in further research is desirable. Additionally, due to the high variation in the utilisation of outcomes in current practice, it is recommended to create more uniformity by developing (inter)national guidelines on using nurse-sensitive patient outcomes in district nursing care.
KW - community health nursing
KW - district nursing care
KW - home care
KW - nurse-sensitive outcomes
KW - nursing research
KW - patient outcome assessment
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85137746283&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/hsc.13988
DO - 10.1111/hsc.13988
M3 - Article
C2 - 36089814
AN - SCOPUS:85137746283
SN - 0966-0410
VL - 30
SP - e5624-e5636
JO - Health and Social Care in the Community
JF - Health and Social Care in the Community
IS - 6
ER -