[Nursing care in the home and in conventional hospitalization]

Nursing care is of especial importance in hospital care in the home (HH). This is as due to the characteristics of the patient as it is to the transfer to the informal carers for the patient. The aim of this study is to analyse the quantity and type of nursing care administered and required by patients in HH and conventional hospitalisation (CH).

Project Research Nursing (PRN) was used to quantify the amount and types of nursing care administered and required in 2 groups of patients (HH: 148 patients, 1776 stays; CH: 148 patients, 1113 stays) having similar characteristics and treated in each way, together with how they evolved, analysing differences in terms of forms of attention and the characteristics of the patients.

In terms of the care administered, those patients in HH (647.8 minutes/episode) received less care than those in CH (1030 minutes/episode). This difference was fundamentally due to the fact that they received less basic care (HH: 96.6 min./episode; CH: 464.3 min./episode) and diagnostic work (HH: 84.4 min./episode; CH: 177.3). On the other hand, patients in HH received a greater quantity of communicational care (238.8 min., as opposed to 107.4 in CH). No significant differences were found between the care administered and that which was required.

Patients in HH received less nursing care than did those in CH, mainly due to the fact that they received less basic care from nurses, as this work was transferred to their careers. They also received less care associated with diagnostic tests (depending on styles of medical practice), although they received more care in the form of communication (health education). The lack of differences between the care that was actually administered and that which was required suggests that the quality of care provided is sufficient in both forms of hospitalisation.