Continuity of care for older people

Older people transferring from NHS hospitals to independent sector nursing homes need continuity of care. However, nurses in the NHS and independent sectors are often out of touch with each other. In the second of two articles on discharge and older people, the author discusses the need for education, assessment and effective communication to help nurses, wherever they work, to provide effective care for elderly people. The author describes an assessment scale for physical and mental abilities, developed to assist the transfer process. The first article was published in Nursing Standard (Nazarko 1998).