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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Margaret A. Kroposki, RN, PhD, Nursing Division, Greenville Technical College, P. O. Box 5616, Greenville, SC 29606, 864-250-8382, peggykro@innova.net and Judith W. Alexander, RN, PhD, College of Nursing, University of South Carolina, Blossom Street, Columbia, SC 29208.
As suggested by the core functions of public health, legislators and policy makers urge public health nurses to best serve the public by caring for populations rather than individuals. However, healthcare decision-makers must also consider the ability of the public health nurses to improve the community outcomes by providing home healthcare to individuals.
This study investigated client outcomes and client satisfaction in 43 home healthcare sites. The study included 23 state owned and 20 non-state owned home healthcare agency sites in rural and urban counties across a southeastern state. Public health nurses provided home care in the state owned agency sites. Some 205 nurses and 325 clients reported the extent to which client outcomes were attained in the home health setting. The Community Health Nursing Outcomes Inventory and the Home Care Client Satisfaction Instrument measured client outcomes reported by the nurses’ and the clients’ perspectives respectively. Analysis using t-tests compared data from the state owned and the non-state owned sites.
Findings suggested that public health nurses who provided home health care were more likely to achieve community health nursing outcomes than home healthcare nurses working for non-state owned agencies. These outcomes were on the dimensions of physiological care, psychological care, nursing interventions, and environmental concerns. Given that the data indicated a high level of client satisfaction and the opportunity to meet many environmental and community health needs through home visits, the role of public health nurses who provide home care needs to be sustained and enhanced rather than threatened.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Public Health Nursing, Outcomes, Home Care
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.