The use of nurse‐led care intervention to improve self‐care abilities subsequently decreasing readmission in multimorbid hospitalized patients: A quasi‐experimental study in a real‐world setting

Abstract

Abstract Aim Nurse‐led care aims to optimize the discharge preparation with a focus on increasing patients' independency and self‐care abilities. This study compared patients' improvements of self‐care abilities and frequency of readmission rate between nurse‐led care and regular nursing care within the acute hospital setting. Design A quasi‐experimental design within a real‐world setting was used for this work. Methods We included a pool of 2501 patients from a control group (medically stable in usual care) and 420 patients from an intervention group (nurse‐led care). After propensity score matching, the study cohort consisted of 612 patients. Results From admission to discharge, nurse‐led care patients showed superior improvements of total self‐care abilities compared to usual care patients. In particular, we found improvements in the following categories: mobility, grooming and excretion. Patients with nurse‐led care were furthermore less frequently readmitted to hospital compared with the control group patients. Patient or public contribution No patient or public contribution.

Keywords

• hospital setting
• intervention
• nurse‐led care
• readmission
• self‐care ability