• Matías Correa-Casado, José Granero-Molina, José Manuel Hernández-Padilla, and Cayetano Fernández-Sola.
• Agencia Pública Empresarial Sanitaria Hospital de Poniente, El Ejido, Almería, España.
• Aten Primaria. 2017 Jun 1; 49 (6): 326334326-334.

AimTo know the experience of case-manager nurses with regard to transferring palliative-care patients from the hospital to their homes.DesignQualitative phenomenological study carried out in 2014-2015.SettingPoniente and Almería health districts, which referral hospitals are Poniente Hospital and Torrecárdenas Hospital, respectively.ParticipantsA purposive sample comprised of 12 case-manager nurses was recruited from the aforementioned setting.MethodTheoretical data saturation was achieved after performing 7 in-depth individual interviews and 1 focus group. Data analysis was performed following Colaizzi's method.ResultsThree themes emerged: (1) 'Case-management nursing as a quality, patient-centred service' (2) 'Failures of the information systems', with the subthemes "patients" insufficient and inadequate previous information" and "ineffective between-levels communication channels for advanced nursing"; (3) 'Deficiencies in discharge planning', with the subthemes "deficient management of resources on admission", "uncertainty about discharge" and "insufficient human resources to coordinate the transfer".ConclusionsCase-manager nurses consider themselves a good-quality service. However, they think there are issues with coordination, information and discharge planning of palliative patients from hospital. It would be useful to review the communication pathways of both care and discharge reports, so that resources needed by palliative patients are effectively managed at the point of being transferred home.Copyright © 2016 Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

17 keywords...

hide…