Pediatric discharge planning.

This article will review the discharge planning process and discuss five significant distinctions specific to children that must be considered in order to provide quality care. These distinctions are: recognizing differences in pediatric diagnoses, delivering care to children of varying developmental levels, selecting appropriate resources, accessing educational interventions, and financing health care.     

Comprehensive discharge planning: a hospital-home healthcare partnership.

Shorter hospital stays place new demands on the discharge planning process. A research study that evaluated discharge planning outcomes reveals a critical need for comprehensive discharge planning involving both hospital and home healthcare agencies.     

ICU nurses' perceptions of discharge planning: a preliminary study.

The role that intensive care unit (ICU) nurses could play in hospital discharge planning remains relatively unexplored. Using a case study, all ICU nurses in one hospital were surveyed about their perceptions of their role in the discharge process. Over 70% of the 58 nurses who responded thought that discharge planning was both appropriate in the ICU and not premature. However, several obstacles including patient acuity, time constraints and limited experience with this process were evident. While ICU nurses are aptly placed to manage discharge planning, they cannot be expected to undertake this important role without a systematic approach to its implementation.     

Patient preferences and discharge planning transitions.

Discharge planning is an urgently needed nursing intervention. The purpose of this article is to investigate the importance of patient and family preferences and participation for discharge planning and to describe the pilot testing of an instrument to measure patient preferences for discharge planning. The results identified a lack of congruence between patients' and caregivers' preferences, suggesting the need to assess both patients' and families' preferences early and incorporate this in discharge planning that begins at admission to a hospital. The instrument, Patient Participation Preferences Assessment (PPPA), is shown to be a useful, reliable, and valid instrument that can be used in conjunction with the companion instrument, Family Preferences Assessment (FPA), to assist nurses with comprehensive discharge planning for greater effectiveness.     

Preadmission testing in a children's facility

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NURSES IN A SAME DAY SURGERY (SDs) UNIT used their hospital's quality model to identify a long-term problem, establish a project, analyze the problem, and make recommendations for changes to improve patient care.

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THE PROCESS included conducting a review of the literature, collecting data about procedure delays and cancellations, making a site visit to another children's hospital, and presenting pertinent findings to the OR committee.

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THE NURSES initiated a pilot program to bring surgical patients into the SDS area for a preadmission testing visit.

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DELAYS AND CANCELLATIONS decreased, and satisfaction among nurses working in the SDS unit increased as a result of this program. AORN J 78 (October 2003) 604-617.