Home visiting nursing care for a terminal stage cancer patient with bed sore--coordination through exchanging of advice request memo as a useful tool

Visiting nursing care service was provided to a 40s female patient, who had a terminal cancer with bed sore around the sacred bones. We started the nursing service when the patient was still cared at hospital. The nursing service we provided was coordinated by the certified nurse specialized in skin and excrement care and home visiting nurse. A smooth home care transition was resulted because of the coordination provided by the two nurses. We started coaching the family while the patient was still at the hospital with a home care instruction manual until the patient was discharged. All in all, the patient and her family were at ease with two nurses' coordinated efforts. Since the patient was cared at home, her bed sore problem got worse due to an absence of caregiver. In order to solve the bed sore problem, the visiting nurse took pictures of peeled adhesive patch and the bed sore around the sacred bones to show and consult with the certified nurse. With the advice from the certified nurse, the home visiting nurse was able to care the bed sore problem manageable in size. From this experience, we learned that a proper communication channel, in this case an advice request memo exchange, between the certified nurse and visiting nurse was a useful tool for both sides in order to properly assess the patient's medical care needs.     

Discussion on care management operation of a visiting nurse--a case of increased ADL by the support of independent life

In addition to the visiting nursing service conventionally provided, the Department of Long-term Care Insurance Service of this hospital inaugurated the home care supporting service in April 2000. Senior citizens rated higher in the degree of necessity of care in the initial accreditation and in the renewal accreditation of the Long-term Care Insurance tend to have fewer changes in the services for the last two years. At present, care managers of various professions are involved in the home care supporting services and have no choice but to provide care in non-specialty areas. Under the situation, care management by the visiting nurse helped an elderly increase ADL and live on his own, and the case is introduced in this article. Mr. K.T. developed angina pectoris at the age of 76, had recurrences of complications and repeated transfers of hospitals and was eventually admitted to the hospital. Though he had declined muscular strength and ADL because of the long bed-ridden life, he was discharged from the hospital. Nursing services centered on visiting nursing were provided as the home care supporting service when home medical care for the patient was started. Since Mr. K.T. required medical management, he and his family members were not sure whether it is possible to provide care for him at home and required guidance about health/life and mental supports. Therefore, visiting nursing care was provided by a nurse to assess needs or condition of the person, which reduced anxiety and encouraged the person. As a result, ADL increased and the degree of necessity of care decreased from 4 to 2. This success is attributed to the visiting nurse's appropriate care management based on the medical expertise from the perspective of nursing and the introduction of necessary services at the necessary time based on the appropriate assessment of changes in the physical condition or willingness and the nursing condition of family members. Coordination with the staffs engaged in each service also contributed to the success. As shown by this case, it may be necessary for care managers who can exercise their specialty to be engaged in the service or to change care managers depending on the condition of the care service receiver or considering the specialty of care managers for the benefit of the care service receiver and for the improvement of the efficiency of the operations.     

An experimental weekly visit of the ward at Higashi Yamato Hospital--a holistic cooperation

The city of Higashi Yamato is located in the northern part of Tama, Suburbs of Tokyo, and the population of Higashi Yamato is approximately 80,000. The Higashi Yamato visiting nursing station was opened in April 1998. As of April 2006, we have over 100 patients, and the aggregate visiting nursing services have provided more than 600 cases. Our station's uniqueness is that forty percent of the patients have malignant neurological disorders and are terminal stage patients, and that they are all covered by medical care insurance. We also provide nursing services to patients who are expected to be dying peacefully at home averaging 4 patients per month. Higashi Yamato Hospital, attached to the visiting nursing station, is an acute phase hospital and has 274 beds. The average hospital stay for our patients was 13 days in 2005. We promote an early discharge from the hospital for patients who have a high need of medical and nursing care and for the patients who are at the terminal stage. However, there were many cases where visiting nursing care services were provided because of a local care manager's request rather than a visiting nursing care need for patients who will be discharged soon from the hospital and for those expecting to have the service. In reality, we have observed a family being felt that his or her patient was pushed out from the hospital, a family who has no confidence in taking a nursing task at home, and a family who could not cope with the patient's changing condition. Therefore, we wanted resolve these observed problems urgently to create close cooperation with the hospital in order to provide continued nursing care after a patient is discharged from the hospital and to have home medical care safely. As a result, we planned a visit to the ward on a weekly basis starting on February 2006. We report here because we had a good result.     

The roles of a visiting nurse for a terminal stage patient with chronic renal failure: a case study

A visiting nursing service was provided for an 87-year-old male patient with terminal stage of chronic renal failure. Although his primary doctor told us that the patient's prognosis is no good with general prostration, the patient was cared at home because his family strongly wanted him in a home care environment. The patient, who is having a right nephrostomy catheter and urethrovesical indwelling catheter and is in an unstable condition due to dehydration caused by an aggravation of renal failure, left the hospital in the end of August in 2005. Meanwhile, a family care giver was feeling uneasiness due to a lack of experience in giving medical treatment and to care for the patient. Therefore, a visiting nurse provided support to reduce the caregiver's anxiety and taught how to observe the patient's conditions, to give medical treatment and a method to care the patient at home. As a result, the patient's symptom was little improved to a lesser degree of stable condition. The family caregiver's anxiety was also reduced as well. The roles of a visiting nurse for a terminal stage patient are: (1) to urge the family care giver to obtain basic self reliant home care techniques, (2) to create a division of clear roles among the family members, (3) to execute an individualized life for the patient and family, (4) to try to establish a system to cooperate with a medical support group.     

A case report of a terminally ill patient who died of cancer at home under pain control

Ninety percent of patients we handle at our visiting nurse group are last stage cancer patients. We report a terminally ill cancer patient who died at home under a high dose of powerful opioids to control pain. The patient was a 69-year-old woman with colorectal cancer. She lived together with her husband and their elder son's family. Even though the patient's condition dramatically shifted time to time, we could maintain a good QOL of the patient till her death at home. After the outpatient chemotherapy treatment began, we confirmed the patient's colorectal cancer had spread to her bones. We started using powerful opioids for pain control and the patient was eventually transferred to home hospice care. Then, the patient suffered a self destruction of the cutis metastasis layer and the disease caused broken bones on her left thigh. We however continued on providing home care service because of the patient's strong desire to stay home even if the family's concern as a care giver had multiplied. We increased the frequency of home visits and telephone calls in order to give medical and spiritual support for both the patient and her family. As a result, we could keep the patient's good QOL up to the time of her death. Based on the experiences through taking care of the patient, we strongly felt that the timing of proper guidance for the peaceful death to the family, a communication method or a communication system and telephone call visits were very important, in addition to controlling the condition of illness in order to keep up a good QOL for both the patient and her family.     

Ways to make cooperation between hospital nurse and home visiting nurse in treating a final stage cancer patient at home

Due to a payment system based on Comprehensive Medical Evaluation has been adopted, both a shorter hospitalization and the use of home nursing care have been increasing. A good cooperation between hospital and home visiting nurses is desired in order to transfer continued nursing. Regarding a home nursing care service for the most terminal cancer patients, we conducted a survey of 459 home visiting nurses with twelve questions in five categories: (1) Before transferring to home care, (2) Right after the transfer to home care, (3) Patient in a stable period, (4) Time of near death and (5) Other (Requests to hospital nurses). The following issues became clearer in terms of how hospital and home visiting nurses should be cooperating with the handling of last stage terminal cancer patients: (1) A home visiting nurse should have a coordinating role with a hospital nurse when the patient is discharged from the hospital. (2) A participation of home visiting nurses on the coordination guidance at the time of a patient discharge is influenced by a manpower of the nursing station. (3) Even though home visiting nurses found a discrepancy between the hospital information and what patients and their families were getting from the hospital, home visiting nurses have learned through the job to clarify what patient and family needs were, and they responded accordingly. (4) A coordination between hospital and home visiting nurses was needed quite often when the patient's time has come to die at home.     

Assistance for improving QOL of patients using artificial respirator--a case of the very aged

The recent reform of the health insurance/Long-term Care Insurance resulted in the introduction of healthcare technology to home and patients can use even an artificial respirator in home medical care. However, both patients and family members have significant mental/physical burden, and in many cases, it may often be impossible to provide care to improve ADL/QOL. This time, a very old patient aged 88, who underwent artificial respiratory management, HOT, tracheotomy, tubal feeding, balloon catheterization and decubitus treatment among other medical cares, was discharged from the hospital and QOL was successfully improved by the care of family members and other various services. The success was mostly attributed to the endeavors of caregivers. In this article, we review the visiting nursing and assess what cares contributed to the improvement of QOL and discuss future assistance.     

Home medical care network in the community supporting hospital--nursing consultant acting for community coordination

Tama Nambu-Chiiki Hospital is a secondary medical institution providing the acute short-term care centered on cancer treatment and emergency medical service, which few other medical institutions in the region provide. The hospital, which has no system to directly support home medical care by house visit or visiting nurses, needs to coordinate home medical care with other community medical institutions. 2 nurses serve as the Nursing Consultants who provide consultation services over the issues related to home medical care and other issues face to face or by phone and coordinate home medical care with other community medical institutions. Medical coordination based on trust and understanding of home medical care by hospital staffs are essential for the smooth transfer to home medical care. Activities of the hospital are studied to cope with the changes in healthcare trend.     

A study to improve the quality of visiting nursing care at Isehara City

As for Isehara City Visiting Nursing Liaison Congress, we investigated and analyzed the actual conditions of visiting nursing care development at Isehara city by using the NADA nursing diagnosis. It is desirable that a visiting nurse should have skills in evacuation, suction of the respiratory tract, rehabilitation, prevention of complications and an early detection of a poor condition of the patient. In addition, we found that it is also desirable that a visiting nurse fulfill a leadership function in coordinating to support home-care, have a communication skill to anticipate potential problems of patients and counsel his or her family concerns in a short period of time.     

Present situation of home care and roles of nurses at Tokyo Women's Medical University Hospital--through the 5-year home care support activities

Diseases, details of interventions, medical cares provided and the condition of use and services of local medical institutions were investigated in the home care support activities during the period from November 1997 to March 2003. We intervened in 1,309 patients. 70% of them were terminal patients with malignant tumor. Interventions were mostly consultations about the life under medical care, guidance about HPN/tube feeding, consultations about nursing and coordination with local medical institutions. 422 of them were under care of family doctors. 502 of them used visiting nursing. 70% of the patients under care of the hospital required high-tech home care and home hospice care. The 5-year activities indicate that nurses who support home care at the hospitals providing acute medical care are expected to 1. serve as the consultation contact for patients and families, 2. support the life under medical care in consultation with internal and external related professionals, 3. use social resources, 4. serve as the contact for providing the logistic support under an emergent situation or under the lack of care-giving capabilities, 5. provide guidance for the safe use of high-tech home medical care by patients/families at the discharge, 6. communicate or coordinate with local medical institutions for continued care/nursing and 7. develop/support the flexible and convenient distribution system of medical equipment and medical materials/drugs or the 24-hour healthcare support system jointly with private enterprises.     

Roles of nursing counseling room in home medical care

The hospital inaugurated the service of visiting nursing in 1985 and the scope of the service was subsequently expanded to patients at the terminal stage and patients under artificial respiratory management. At present, however, the service of visiting nursing is restricted to the assistance to visiting medical care as a result of the diversification of the services of Nursing Counseling Room and the provision of better services at the visiting nursing station established in the city. The author reviewed the roles of the Nursing Counseling Room based on the experiences of discharge arrangements made in 2000 and 2001 in a patient with terminal disease, a patient with neurological refractory disease under artificial respiratory management and a child also under artificial respiratory management. Experiences in these patients made us realize the necessity of acting on the department of welfare of the municipal government, coordinating with the visiting nursing station, effectively holding conferences to discuss discharge and the necessity of the home doctor. We are determined to work to find solutions for these challenges.     

Clinical clerkship of home care for medical students

A clinical clerkship of home care has been introduced in our program for third-year medical students since 1998 at this university. In our clinical clerkship of home care, medical students are not only dispatched to visiting nursing stations, but they also participate in home care service activities with visiting nursing people at patients' homes. Through these experiences the students have an opportunity to study the policy of community medicine and home care, and to gain the knowledge of teamwork. OBJECTIVE AND METHOD: The clerkship of home care (1 week program) was introduced to all of the third-year medical students. The students were dispatched to visiting nursing stations and they had to take part in home care service activities at patients' homes with community care visiting nurses. After this program was finished, questionnaires were given to all the students and visiting nurses to examine the necessity and scheduling of this program and to evaluate the students by the visiting nurses, etc. RESULT: A total of 621 students participated in our program for the past 6 years since 1998, and 90 visiting nurses from 30 visiting nursing stations gave actual trainings to our students every year at patients' homes. 98% of the students as well as 97% of the home care nurses returned questionnaires. After the program, 95.1% of the students and 97.8% of the visiting nurses agreed that this program was meaningful for both sides and it should be continued. Furthermore, regarding a question of the suitability of the third-year medical students to be in the program, 70% of the students and 48% of the visiting nurses agreed. As to a question of the training duration, 80% of the students and 87% of the visiting nurses also agreed. Both students and visiting nurses were in agreement that this home care clerkship was important. Meanwhile, both students and visiting nurses also expressed a degree of some difficulty for this clinical clerkship training. These results suggested that there were some factors to be resolved in order to carry out the clinical clerkship as a success. The clinical trainings for community-based home care are not carried out sufficiently under present medical education because clinical clerkships are always performed at a bedside of a university hospital. It is hard for the students to learn community-based home care and the time related progression of a patient's disease. Therefore, clinical clerkship of home care is a good and effective method to educate the students in those areas.     

Home care in Sapporo

We established a clinic specialized in home care in Sapporo in July 2001. In these 2 years we have provided medical home care service to 160 patients, and 97 are still receiving regular service. At first we accepted any patients living within 16 km from the clinic. However, bad traffic conditions in winter made it difficult to visit patients living in districts far away from the clinic. Therefore, we planned a network of home care physicians in Sapporo. Now 12 home care physicians hold monthly meetings. In Sapporo, meetings of home care related workers are organized in each ward, as suggested by the Sapporo Medical Association. There is a relatively good supply of home care related services and resources, including availability of an important number of visiting nurses. Patients being taken care of at home who present an acute exacerbation of symptoms are relatively easily accepted by acute hospitals. But those who have difficulties in continuing home care due to a sudden change in family conditions are not easily accepted by nursing hospitals. Recently, the number of group homes and lodging houses for elderly persons has markedly increased in Sapporo. It might have some problems in medical support in the near future.     

A consideration through the support to resident diabetic patient and care-giver

Our hospital is a National General Hospital with 585 beds. We began the visiting care service from 1990 and four visiting staffs are working at present. The number of targets was 69 in 2002 including 32 patients over 70 years old and 20 care-givers over 70 years old. Visiting care has been conducted to a 72-year-old female with diabetes since July 2000. The patient is in bedridden condition and at the beginning of visiting, she was taking oral medication but the condition was worsen by poor glycemic control and changed to insulin injection from June 2002 after admission to the hospital repeatedly. The patient undergoes the measurement of blood sugar daily and takes meals with 1,200 to 1,400 kcal prepared by her husband. The care-giver is a 71-year-old husband. He was an "all-work, no-play" type of person and had never done the housework, but he started to manage both housework and nursing because of bedridden of his wife. He is a reticent theorist, hates illogical behavior, and does not swayed by other opinions. He has accepted the things which need new knowledge and techniques such as measurement of blood glucose and insulin injection. However, for meals, he only bought side dishes and placed them. Care such as keeping the patient clean was in a same state. The patient consulted and admission to the hospital repeatedly because conditions were not stable. Visiting nurse supported daily life of patient and care-giver especially in nutrition instruction to continue home life. As the result, attitude and behavior toward nursing of care-giver were changed and the patient could continue home life. Therefore we reported here.     

Economical evaluation for drug consultation at home

We started drug consultation at patients' homes in October, 1998. The number of drug consultations are 2.65 per month per patient and the consulting time is 2.25 hours per patient. The fee for drug consultation is 550 points twice a month. We evaluate the fee for drug consultation. Our data suggest that this fee needs to be 550 points three times a month.     

Home care support by telephone consultation service at a palliative care unit

Since the condition of a cancer patient in the terminal phase changes every day, it is difficult for patients at home to maintain stability unless symptom management and a support system are available. In order to reduce the anxiety of these patients and their families during this period and to support meaningful home care, a telephone consultation service of telephone calls from the Palliative Care Unit (PCU) was begun in October 1994. At this point, telephone calls have been made to 515 patients. The status of the telephone service last year (January to December 1999) is summarized herein. 1. Since patients and their families can contact the PCU at any time, they feel more secure. 2. Since patients and their families are telephoned from the PCU, they do not hesitate to consult the physician or nurse calling. 3. Physicians and nurses can ascertain a patient's condition and problems and cope with these aspects in a timely manner. 4. As a result, patients and their families can spend the time remaining in the patient's life with fewer symptoms suffered by the patient. In conclusion, this telephone consultation service has become an important system as part of the outpatient support system.     

Nursing care by telephone: describing practice in an ambulatory oncology center

Ambulatory oncology nursing care focuses on providing patients and families with the knowledge and resources needed to manage the symptoms of disease and the side effects of treatment. Nurses practicing in ambulatory care settings have limited face-to-face interaction with patients and families. As a result, telephone contact is used to give information, provide encouragement, and assess the patient's condition. To develop and test methods of delivering care to oncology patients by telephone, current practices must be documented. This study describes the use of the telephone in ambulatory oncology nursing in one patient care setting. Over a six-month period, nurses reported on 1,844 patient calls. Data collected on these telephone calls included: duration, initiator, purpose, nurse's assessment of urgency level, impact on the nursing care plan, and changes made in the use of healthcare services. The Outcome Standards for Cancer Nursing Practice of The American Nurses' Association and the Oncology Nursing Society most frequently addressed during the calls were information, comfort, and coping. Nurses in this setting functioned independently, handling 91% of the calls they received and using consultation for 52% of the calls.     

Is a nurse‐led telephone intervention a viable alternative to nurse‐led home care and standard care for patients receiving oral capecitabine? Results from a large prospective audit in patients with colorectal cancer

Home care nursing has been shown to be a valuable service for patients receiving oral chemotherapy; however, associated costs can be high and telephone‐based services may be more cost‐effective options. This prospective audit explored the usefulness of a nurse‐led telephone intervention for supporting cancer patients treated with Capecitabine, comparing historical findings from a randomised trial evaluating a home‐based intervention over standard care with a modified nurse‐led telephone follow‐up intervention. Self‐reported toxicity and service use were assessed in 298 patients who received nurse‐led telephone follow‐up, compared with historical data from 164 patients (81 receiving standard care and 83 home care intervention). Findings suggested that nurse‐led telephone follow‐up can potentially lead to reduced toxicity (chest pain, vomiting, oral mucositis, nausea, insomnia) when compared with standard care, and that it has a similar impact on the management of some symptoms when compared with home care (i.e. vomiting, oral mucositis), although it was not as effective as the home care intervention for other toxicities (diarrhoea and insomnia). These encouraging findings need to be explored further using a randomised trial design before we reach any conclusions. Further research should also include a health economics study to assess the cost‐effectiveness of the telephone‐based services for patients receiving oral chemotherapy.     

Key issues in death at home

After our facility was first opened, we provided terminal care for one patient with terminal stomach cancer. In this case palliative care, so important in terminal care, and care for the family was insufficient, and in the end we had to abandon the process assuring the kind of death the patient wished for at home. Learning from this experience, we have provided terminal care to about 150 patients based on each patient's outlook on life and view of life and death. These patients have included terminal cancer patients and patients informed of their cancer who chose to coexist with the cancer and live together with their families. At home, the words and facial expressions of the patients and their families are clear expressions of their humanity. At times, such, feelings are also directed frankly and unaffectedly toward us, the visiting nursing staff. When considering the early case in which we were unable to continue home care, we could see various problems: on the part of the medical staff including primary physician and nurses, the welfare service, the patient and family, and neighboring informal social resources. These included problems in informing the patient of his cancer and his remaining days. In home treatment of patients with terminal cancer, death at home assisted by a physician from the same medical facility is not emotionally all it might appear to be. Nurses, for example, do not provide religious comfort; therefore, they can not provide home hospice services. Or so it is said. However, in supporting community home care, there is an exchange between humans and the communication of genuine feelings; thus, the nurturing of warm care makes possible the kind of death the person wishes. In fact, we can not deny that that is the path we are taking. In the present report, we explore the issues that make home terminal care possible from the viewpoint of visiting nurses.