[Psychology of nursing personnel in home care nursing]

In a random survey questions were put to 100 employees of home care centers (51 qualified nursing staff, 28 assistants and/or trainees, 21 young people doing community service as an alternative to military service).

(1) The job motivation is primarily of a private nature: social commitment, achievement motivation, being responsible for solving diverse human problems are at the centre of job orientation. (2) Huge disappointments (neglect of patients, stress, arrangement of working hours, bureaucracy, lack of self-responsibility) are in 62% of the cases the reasons for changing from a clinic to the home care centre. (3) The psychological results of home care nursing are only positive in 62% of the cases; 26% have thought of giving notice, 37% would not choose their job again. (4) The training qualification for home care nursing is only adequate for 60% of those questioned; deficiencies are experienced with regard to consulting competence, gerontopsychiatry, specific knowledge about illnesses, legal questions. Essential further training is neglected. Also initial instruction in the home care service is to a great extent unsatisfactory. (5) For economic reasons it is frequently necessary to limit daily care to basic nursing; the patients' communicative needs have to ignored. One's occupational self-importance dwindles away; the job increasingly becomes an everyday stress factor. (6) The high risk of infection in the case of home-care patients is considered to be above-average (bedsores, infection risks with regard to changing bandages/catheters, anuspraeter aids, incontinence, fungal diseases, food risks: not keeping to diets, food not suitable for the elderly, lack of appropriate storage for leftovers. (7) Nursing staff, as well as patients, regard soap, cleansing lotion, shampoo, tooth brushes and toothpaste as the main items for personal hygiene, for the prevention and treatment of bedsores. Beyond that, compared with nursing staff, patients have a greater need for personal hygiene products (deodorants, mouthwash, perfume, etc.): personal hygiene providing mental stimulation. (8) Doctors are not integrated sufficiently into the social network of nursing home-care patients. The required quality of cooperation with the nursing staff only exists in part. (9) Contact to the overworked relatives is generally positive. Cooperation can be optimized by imparting basic nursing knowledge, by getting the relatives to participate in one's own work, by enlisting the home-care centre early on and through psychological support by third parties (e.g. discussion courses).