Study to Determine the Validity of the Nursing Admission Assessment (DA Form 3888/3888-1) as a Mechanism for Identifying the Presence of One or More Universal Indicators of the Need for Discharge Planning.

摘要

This project was a descriptive field study conducted as one component of the evaluation by the Center Discharge Planning Committee of a newly implemented Discharge Planning Program at Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC). The study was designed to evaluate use of the Nursing Admission Assessment forms as a valid mechanism for determining the presence of one or more indicators of the need for discharge planning. The Discharge Planning Committee selected three trial wards to participate in a six-month study of the use of multidisciplinary rounds to effect a coordinated discharge plan for patients who demonstrated one or more of the indicators of the need for discharge planning as defined in the BAMC Memorandum - Discharge Planning. The study was unable to determine which specific indicators caused referral to discharge planning rounds, but the most frequently identified indicators obtained from the nursing assessment were those pertaining to catastrophic illness and associated functional disability. This study was quantitative rather than qualitative and concluded with recommendations to educate the staff about the discharge planning process, to critically evaluate the use of indicators as a screen for determining which patients need discharge planning, and to improve the quality of the functional assessment of patients. Keywords: Discharge planning, Admission assessment, Nursing assessment, Functional assessment, Universal indicators, Decision making. (KT)