[Continuity of care--the perspective of nurses responsible for Pflegeüberleitung]

Until a few years ago, continuity of care in connection with a client's transition from one care setting to another was not considered part of the primary objectives of the health system, due to a strict division of intramural and extra-mural care systems. Nowadays, epidemiological as well as sociographic developments have changed the situation fundamentally. As their common main objective, the different approaches towards Pflegeüberleitung focus on the management of interfaces by reducing breaks in co-ordination, thereby improving the quality of the service. As part of an extensive research project in three hospitals from March 2000 to February 2002 on securing continuity of care through Pflegeüberleitung, specific attention was rendered to the views of nurses involved in it. One of the main findings emerging from the self-assessment focuses on the uncertainty of the nurses involved in Pflegeüberleitung about their own work within the hospital context. This reflects the still insufficient integration of Pflegeüberleitung in the hospital system. Here, organization is still centered on "discharge" as the main work aim rather than the patients' interests reaching beyond system borders.