A Delphi Study to Construct an Index of Practice for Community Nurses Providing Transitional Home Care for Patients with Chronic Diseases

Abstract

Community nurses play a key role in providing continuous home care for patients with chronic diseases. However, a perfect system of responsibilities and requirements has not yet been formed, and nurses cannot provide high-quality nursing services for home-based patients. We attempted to construct an index of the scope of practice for community nurses providing home-based transitional care for patients with chronic diseases and to guide nurses in playing an active role in transitional care work. From March to May 2023, 14 representative community nurses from the Shanghai Community Health Service Center were selected for group interviews and 2 rounds of Delphi consultation. A total of 14 valid questionnaires were collected. The authority coefficients were 0.94 and 0.93, and the Kendall coefficients were 0.56 and 0.59 for the 2 rounds of expert consultation ( P < .05). Finally, an index system, including 6 primary indices (transitional caring provider, patient self-management facilitator, community group intervention organizer, home caregiver supporter, family physician team collaborator and supervisor of home medical equipment use, and medical waste disposal) was constructed for community nurses involved in providing home-based transitional care for patients with chronic diseases. The weight values of the 6 indices were 0.19, 0.17, 0.21, 0.13, 0.14 and 0.16, respectively (CR = 0.035, and the consistency test was passed), and 16 secondary indicators and 42 tertiary indicators were identified. In this Delphi study, an index system that can be used to determine community nurses’ roles in providing home-based transitional and continuous care for patients with chronic diseases was successfully established. The index system is considered reliable and easy to use and will provide a meaningful reference for community nurses and policy-makers.