Preparation of Professional Nurses for Primary Nursing Care: A Supplemental Report

摘要

This supplement describes two phases of a protocol to prepare professional nurses to make the transition from team nursing to primary nursing care--assessment of the pilot unit, and development of a primary nursing care model and protocol. Assessment of the pilot unit consists of the following steps: Describing the physical arrangements, identifying patient types, tabulating a staff:to:patient ratio, developing a staff profile, documenting nurses' knowledge of primary nursing care, and identifying factors present which may influence the implementation of primary nursing care. Developing primary nursing care models and protocols entails defining the role of each staff member, including the head nurse, the primary nurse, and the various assistants. Once roles are defined, the nurses should comply with a course of study designed to prepare the professional nurse to implement primary nursing care. A sample course description and a primary nursing care questionnaire are presented in the latter portion of the report.