A Theoretical Framework of Home-Based Professional Nursing Practice

The purpose of this article is to introduce a descriptive middle-range theoretical framework unique to professional nursing practice provided in the patient's home. The variety of care models provided in the home, ranging from nonskilled home maintenance service to hospital-at-home programs, reinforces the need to clearly define and describe home-based professional nursing practice. This framework includes six concepts (primacy of home, patient authority, patient self-management, caregivers as collaborators, interprofessional clinical team collaboration, nurse autonomy), and four relational statements of the concepts that describe the experience of patients in their homes and home-based providers. The four theoretical statements are: (1) The patient's beliefs, habits, and self-management actions in the home are shaped by the meaning of home and the physical home environment. (2) The patient has ultimate decision-making control and authority over his/her own health-related behaviors in the home. (3) Home-based care includes interprofessional teams to provide holistic care and maximize self-management ability. (4) The home-based nurse is autonomous when working in the home with the patient/caregiver and has primary responsibility for holistic assessment and intervention. Knowledge of this theoretical framework can help nurses maintain the integrity and purpose of the professional nurse's role in home-based care as well as provide guidance for nursing education and organizational structures. Recommendations for research to test and validate the framework are provided.