Abstract
Objective
To investigate how nurses from different practice settings operationalize responsible hospital discharge, and how much time they dedicate to this process.
Methods
This is a web survey carried out with 71 nurses from 29 hospitals in the state of São Paulo between February and September 2021. Fourteen activities, validated by specialists in a previous stage, supported the construction of a questionnaire submitted to a pre-test. Respondents’ personal and professional data were requested, as well as the regularity, moment, professionals involved and estimated time for carrying out activities at hospital discharge. For statistical analysis measures of central tendency and parametric and non-parametric tests were applied to compare the variables.
Results
Nurses were linked to teaching (n=46), public (n=14) and private (n=11) hospitals. They were mostly female, 66 (93%), with a mean age of 36 (SD 7.0), years and professional experience time of 11.8 (SD 7.1) years. For the most part, they performed a clinical/assistance role. It was reported that most activities were performed regularly in the first four days of hospitalization. Scheduling home visits, identifying post-discharge problems and telephone contact (up to seven days) were never carried out by nurses, 44(63.7%), 41(58.6%) and 51(71.8%), respectively. The estimated average time for the process represented 257.5 minutes.
Conclusion
Failure to systematically implement various activities and the significant time required in the process can guide managers in reviewing protocols related to responsible discharge and in managing practices to improve the process.
Patient discharge; Continuity of patient care; Process assessment, health care; Workload; Nursing staff, hospital