Pediatric Dismissal Protocol to Aid the Transition from Hospital Care to Home Care

The effectiveness of a written Home Instruction Sheet was studied for increase of knowledge and follow-through of home instructions. Verbal home instructions were given to 34 parents of children being dismissed from a pediatric unit. In addition, a written Home Instruction Sheet was given to 33 parents. The instruction sheet contained five categories of instructions: physician's visit, diet, activity, medication regime, and special instructions. After four days the parents were interviewed with a follow-up phone call questionnaire. The responses of the parents who received the written Home Instruction Sheet were significantly more accurate in three of five major categories of questions: that is, physician's visit, diet instructions, and special instructions (p < .05). Knowledge in the category of activity instructions approached significance at a level of.06. Knowledge in medication regimes was not significant.
In the categories of physician's visit and diet instructions, there was a significantly greater level of positive responses for follow-through of home instructions from the parents who received the written Home Instruction Sheet than from those parents who received verbal instructions. The responses to the follow-through of home care demonstrated no significant difference in three of the five categories: activity instructions, medication regime, and special instructions. These findings suggest that written home instructions can assist parents/families in their accuracy of knowledge and follow-through of home instructions.