A Study of Patient-Family Responses to Scheduled and Unscheduled Public Health Nursing Visits in Boulder County, Colorado

Eggebroten, Evelyn Gustafson

Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation

A Study of Patient-Family Responses to Scheduled and Unscheduled Public Health Nursing Visits in Boulder County, Colorado Público Deposited

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Citations

Citeable URL: https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/1v53jx176

Abstract

This study was designed to compare satisfactions and annoyances of patient-families with scheduled and unscheduled home visits made by public health nurses and to obtain patient-family opinion on the scheduling of the home visit. The purposes of the study were as follows: (1) to compare satisfactions of patient-families with scheduled and unscheduled home visits; (2) to compare annoyances of patient-families with scheduled and unscheduled home visits; (3) to obtain patient-family opinion on the scheduling of the home visit (4) to determine whether there were any patterns of preference related to scheduled home visits on the basis of (a) age of children, (b) working mother, (c) residence within Boulder or Longmont, and (d) patient diagnosis; (5) to make recommendations for improving public health nursing service. The survey, combining the questionnaire and an interview, was used to obtain the information desired for the study. Six public health nurses and fifty-four patient-families participated in the study. The findings revealed that (l) patient-families who were visited without an appointment indicated more satisfaction than the patient-families who were visited with an appointment; (2) patient-families who were visited with an appointment indicated more annoyance than the patient-families who were visited without an appointment; (3) thirty-one out of forty-seven patient-families interviewed stated that they preferred public health nursing visits by appointment. An analysis of patterns of preference for scheduled visits indicated that appointments should be made whenever possible in the following situations: (l) patient-family with residence in Boulder or Longmont (2) patient-family with young children; (3) patient-family in which there is a working mother; and (4) patient-family in which there is long-term illness. It was recommended that (l) the behaviors of the nurse which have created annoyance and those which have reduced satisfaction of patient-families should be reviewed by the public health nursing staff and appropriate action should be taken to eliminate these annoyances and dissatisfactions; (2) the agency review its policy on making public health nursing scheduled and unscheduled visits; (3) in view of the fact that the findings were contradictory, the agency do further study of patient-family responses to public health nursing visits; and (4) the agency do a cost study of "not-at-home" and other non-productive visits.

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