[Educational needs of home health care nurses]

Because of the rapid growth and changes occurring in home health care, nurses have a need for acquiring additional education and nursing skills. Post-RN (registered nurse) education in home health care, however, has not been developed yet. The purpose of this study was to identify the significant educational needs of the home health care nurses in order to upgrade nursing skills. A survey was conducted of members of the nursing society for intractable-diseases and other home health nurses introduced by some of the members. The survey questionnaires were sent to 172 subjects and the response rate was 79.6%. Practical nurses and inactive nurses were excluded to leave 125 registered nurses who were subjects of this analysis. The major findings in this study were as follows: a) The mean age of the respondents was 42.1 years old. The average length of clinical nursing experience was 17.0 years. b) Among fifty home care nursing skills indicated higher implementation percentage than high-technology nursing skills. c) The personal care skills as well as high-technology nursing skills showed low difficulty, while interviewing and counseling skill and communication skill showed high difficulty. d) The respondents showed high educational needs for mastering high-technology nursing, communication and counseling skills. e) Clinical nursing experience of hospital service was found to be significantly useful means for the respondents to perform most of the home care nursing skills. Reference books were utilized as supplementary to the clinical experience. f) When asked about their desire for educational resources to provide high quality home health care nursing, approximately 80% responded that they wanted to obtain up-to-date information, and opportunities for clinical practice training courses. On the basis of our findings, the following skills could be crucial for the home health nurses and should be included in continuing educational programs; interviewing and counseling, interpersonal communication, high-technology home health care nursing, and independent decision-making.