Nurses’ Roles, Responsibilities and Actions in the Hospital Discharge Process of Older Adults with Health and Social Care Needs in Three Nordic Cities: A Vignette Study

Ann E. M. Liljas (), Natasja K. Jensen, Jutta Pulkki and Janne Agerholm
Additional contact information
Ann E. M. Liljas: Department of Global Public Health, Karolinska Institutet, 171 77 Stockholm, Sweden
Natasja K. Jensen: Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, 1123 Copenhagen, Denmark
Jutta Pulkki: The Health Sciences Unit, Faculty of Social Sciences, Tampere University, 33520 Tampere, Finland
Janne Agerholm: Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, 171 77 Stockholm, Sweden

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 19, 1-14

Abstract: The hospital discharge process of older adults in need of both medical and social care post hospitalisation requires the involvement of nurses at multiple levels across the different phases. This study aims to examine and compare what roles, responsibilities and actions nurses take in the hospital discharge process of older adults with complex care needs in three Nordic cities: Copenhagen (Denmark), Stockholm (Sweden) and Tampere (Finland). A vignette-based interview study consisting of three cases was conducted face-to-face with nurses in Copenhagen ( n = 11), Stockholm ( n = 16) and Tampere ( n = 8). The vignettes represented older patients with medical conditions, cognitive loss and various home situations. The interviews were conducted in the local language, recorded, transcribed and analysed thematically. The findings show that nurses exchanged information with both healthcare (all cities) and social care services (Copenhagen, Tampere). Nurses in all cities, particularly Stockholm, reported to inform, and also convince patients to make use of home care. Nurses in Stockholm and Tampere reported that some patients refuse care due to co-payment. Nurses in these two cities were more likely to involve close relatives, possibly due to such costs. Not accepting care, due to costs, poses inequity in later life. Additionally, organisational changes towards a shift in location of care, i.e., from hospital to home, and from professional to informal caregivers, might be reflected in the work of the nurses through their initiatives to convince older patients to accept home care and to involve close relatives.

Keywords: aging; older people; hospital discharge; healthcare; home care; social care (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/19/6809/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/19/6809/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:19:p:6809-:d:1245922

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().