The content of nurses' oral shift reports in homes for elderly people

The paper deals with the content of nurses' oral shift reports in homes for elderly people. Material for the study was gathered from two homes by recording nurses' morning, afternoon and evening reports on audio tape over 4 weeks. It was analysed by classifying the content of the reports. Emphasis in the reports was on matters associated with physical needs and medical treatment of the aged person. There were considerably fewer statements in the report about opinions and state of mind of elderly people. Nurses did not often discuss how to support independence of elderly people. The reports provided situationally dependent and random information for the nurses' decision-making process. In comparison, they contained relatively little information or discussion about care as a whole.