[Development of practical care management guidelines for community health care]

The objectives of this study were to develop practical guidelines for care management processes (hereafter referred to as practical guidelines) that can be widely used for Japanese community health care activities. The composition of the practical guidelines was based on assessment to clarify the quality of care management process. Details for items show of concrete activities were collected by brain storming of skilled community health nurses; and important items were thereby selected. The utility of the practical guidelines was examined based on the results of their application to several cases and a mail questionnaire survey of community health nurses and staff members of home-care support centers. Further, modifications were carried out several times in a series of processes. These efforts resulted in development of 45 practical items; each consisting of 4 sub-items, and the practical guidelines became more adequate through the investigation. They were found useful for implementing care management, evaluating the care system, and educating the current staff members and students. The concrete effects of utilizing these practical guidelines should be examined in more detail in the future.