Interprofessional Collaboration Between Nurses and Occupational Therapists Enhances Independence and Reduces...

Area of Science:

• Geriatric Care
• Nursing and Allied Health
• Quality Improvement

Background:

• Hospitalized older patients often experience declines in activities of daily living (ADLs) and require significant support.
• Current care models may not optimally integrate nursing and occupational therapy to address these challenges.
• Use of disposable absorbent products and physical restraints are common but potentially reducible outcomes in geriatric care.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate a collaborative practice (CP) model between nurses and occupational therapists.
• To determine if the CP model improves ADLs in hospitalized older patients.
• To assess the model's impact on reducing disposable absorbent product and physical restraint use.

Main Methods:

• Prospective, historically controlled study design.
• Intervention group (n=46) received CP model; control group (n=72) received usual care.
• Propensity score matching created 45 matched pairs for analysis; outcome measures included ADLs (Functional Independence Measure - FIM) and product/restraint use.

Main Results:

• The CP model significantly reduced disposable absorbent product use compared to the historical control group (p=0.020).
• Both groups showed reductions in physical restraint use (p ≤ 0.007).
• The intervention group demonstrated significantly greater improvements in all FIM scores, indicating enhanced ADLs (p ≤ 0.013).

Conclusions:

• A collaborative practice model involving nurses and occupational therapists positively impacts ADLs in older hospitalized patients.
• This CP model effectively reduces the use of disposable absorbent products.
• The findings support the CP model as a strategy to enhance the quality of geriatric care.