Information exchange between registered nurses and district nurses during the discharge planning process: cross-sectional analysis of survey data

Sofi Nordmark, Siv Söderberg, Lisa Skär

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Objectives: Discharge planning is an important care process for managing transitions from the hospital to the community. It has been studied for >20 years, but few studies clarify the information exchanged between healthcare providers. This study aimed to describe nurses' experiences and perceptions of information exchange during the discharge planning process, focused on what, when and how information is exchanged between the hospital and primary healthcare. Method: A web-based census survey was used to collect data; the data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and chi-squared test. A questionnaire was distributed to 194 registered nurses (129 respondents) from a central county hospital and 67 district nurses (42 respondents) working in 13 primary healthcare centres. Results: The results show a significant difference between given and received information between the two groups. Both groups thought the information exchange worked best when all participants met at the discharge planning conference and that the electronic information system was difficult to use. Conclusion: This study shows difficulties knowing what patient-related information needs to give and not receiving the expected information. These results can be used to develop knowledge about roles, work tasks and needs to enhance the outcome of the process and the information exchanged.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)23-44
Number of pages22
JournalInformatics for Health and Social Care
Volume40
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2014-Jan
Externally publishedYes

Swedish Standard Keywords

  • Health Sciences (303)

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