Patient and Family-Centred Home and Community Care: Realizing the Opportunity

As jurisdictions around the world transform their healthcare systems, the home and community care sector represents both a significant challenge and a critical opportunity for the future. One of the biggest challenges is that home and community care lags behind hospitals and primary care in most health systems in funding, policy, and infrastructure. At the same time, home and community care is an ideal foundation for a health system which is patient and family-centred and provides care options that are delivered closer to home. This article builds on the patient-centred care concepts in an article by Sharkey and Lefebvre (2017) and identifies how nurses can lead the way to health system transformation by working with patients and families to co-design changes to achieve a higher quality, more integrated and patient-centred home and community care system.