ABSTRACT
Objective To explore district nurses' experience with hospital-community-family integrated management of chronic diseases.Methods Fifteen district nurses were interviewed by semi-structured interviews,and data were analyzed by Colaizzi's seven-step method.Results Three themes emerged:Theme 1,integration of chronic diseases was accepted by patients gradually,but collaboration with tertiary hospitals was needed;theme 2,government's guidance contributed to the development of integrated management of chronic diseases;theme 3,integrated management of chronic diseases still faced challenges.Theme 3 contained four sub-themes:limited self-preparedness;limited community medical resources and authority;unsatisfied residents' medical service and dispensing;imperfect information sharing platform.Conclusion Integrating existing medical resources,enhancing collaboration with tertiary hospitals,solving conflicts between residents' needs and primary health care resources,enhancing competency of district nurses are main tasks for advancing management of chronic disease.