Practical Abilities of Discharge Planning Nurses in Supporting Discharge of Terminal Cancer Patients

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study was to investigate the practical abilities of discharge planning nurses to support discharge of terminal cancer patients. A survey was mailed to 477 discharge planning nurses (DPNs) who were employed at 120 designated regional cancer centers in Japan. Responses from 198 (valid response rate 41.5%) DPNs were subjected to analysis. The median number of years of DPN experience of the subjects was 2.5 years, and 90.2% of them had more than 10 years of nursing experience. Among the discharge planning abilities, “To Coordinate Post-discharge Care Balance” was significantly higher in the group with more nursing experience and in the group with longer DPN experience; “To Estimate Post-discharge Care Balance” and “To Prepare for Transition from the Hospital to a Care Facility” was significantly higher in the group with longer DPN experience and in the group with more experience working in home and community care. But “To make an agreement with the patient and their families” was not significantly different for experienced DPNs. It was suggested that in order to improve the quality of discharge planning, it is necessary to create a system that allows staffing based on individual experience and sharing of knowledge and experience of veteran DPNs.