AIM: This paper is a report of a study conducted to describe the accuracy of nursing documentation in patient records in hospitals. Background. Accurate nursing documentation enables nurses to systematically review the nursing process and to evaluate the quality of care. Assessing nurses' reports in patient records can be helpful for improving the accuracy of nursing documentation.METHOD: In 2007-2008, we screened patient records (n = 341) from 35 wards in 10 hospitals in the Netherlands. The D-Catch instrument was used to quantify the accuracy of the (1) record structure, (2) admission data, (3) nursing diagnosis, (4) nursing interventions, (5) progress and outcome evaluations and (6) legibility of nursing reports. Items 2-5 were measured as a sum score of quantity criteria (1-4) and quality criteria (1-4), whereas Items 1 and 6 were measured on a 4-point Likert scale that addressed only quality criteria.FINDINGS: The domain 'accuracy of the interventions' had the lowest accuracy scores: 95% of the records revealed a scale score not higher than 5. However, the domain 'admission' had the highest scores: 80% of the records revealed a scale score over 5.CONCLUSION: Effective documentation systems that support nurses in linking diagnoses, interventions and progress and outcome evaluations could be helpful. To improve the accuracy of the documentation, further research is needed on what factors influence nursing documentation. Comparable outcomes from other studies indicate that applying our study findings to international contexts might support the development of universal criteria for accurate nursing documentation.
Prehabilitation trajectories contribute to improving lifestyle choices and influencing risk factors to reduce postoperative complications, the overall hospital stay and lower health care costs. This paper gives an overview of the best current evidence on the role, scope, added value and expertise of nurses during the prehabilitation trajectory of patients with GI cancer, consisting of relevant nursing diagnosis, interventions and outcomes within four specific domains. The methods used are literature searches that were performed between June 2022 and January 2023, with a final search on January 25th. The search strategy included four steps, following the Joanna Briggs Institute Manual. Two researchers contributed to the study selection process. The results were categorized according to the domains of multimodal prehabilitation. The Handbook of Carpenito was used to link the results to nursing diagnoses, interventions and nurse sensitive outcomes.
Objective To explore predictors of district nursing care utilisation for community-living (older) people in the Netherlands using claims data. To cope with growing demands in district nursing care, knowledge about the current utilisation of district nursing care is important. Setting District nursing care as a part of primary care. Participants In this nationwide study, claims data were used from the Dutch risk adjustment system and national information system of health insurers. Samples were drawn of 5500 pairs of community-living people using district nursing care (cases) and people not using district nursing care (controls) for two groups: all ages and aged 75+ years (total N=22 000). Outcome measures The outcome was district nursing care utilisation and the 114 potential predictors included predisposing factors (eg, age), enabling factors (eg, socioeconomic status) and need factors (various healthcare costs). The random forest algorithm was used to predict district nursing care utilisation. The performance of the models and importance of predictors were calculated. Results For the population of people aged 75+ years, most important predictors were older age, and high costs for general practitioner consultations, aid devices, pharmaceutical care, ambulance transportation and occupational therapy. For the total population, older age, and high costs for pharmaceutical care and aid devices were the most important predictors. Conclusions People in need of district nursing care are older, visit the general practitioner more often, and use more and/or expensive medications and aid devices. Therefore, close collaboration between the district nurse, general practitioner and the community pharmacist is important. Additional analyses including data regarding health status are recommended. Further research is needed to provide an evidence base for district nursing care to optimise the care for those with high care needs, and guide practice and policymakers’ decision-making.
