International priorities for home care education, research, practice, and management: Qualitative content analysis.

Author information

1: School of Nursing, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research, 112 Paterson Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, United States of America. Electronic address: olga.jarrin@rutgers.edu.
2: Home Healthcare Service, Hamad Medical Corporation, Qatar. Electronic address: fbouladi@hamad.qa.
3: Case Western Reserve University, United States of America. Electronic address: elizabeth.madigan@case.edu.

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

Despite growing demand for home care nursing, there is a growing home care workforce shortage, due in part to hospital-centric nursing curricula that lead students to undervalue of home care and community practice setting (Van Iersel et al., 2018a, 2018b).

OBJECTIVES:

Articulate an international vision for the future of home care education, research, practice, and management shared by experienced home care nurses working in leadership roles.

DESIGN:

Qualitative content analysis.

SETTINGS AND PARTICIPANTS:

The sample included 50 home care professionals from 17 countries.

METHODS:

Home care nurse leaders (in education, research, practice, and management roles) were recruited through professional international nursing networks to participate in a structured online survey about priorities for the future of home care in 2014. Responses were open coded by two independent researchers. Preliminary categories and sub-themes were developed by the research team and revised after a modified member-checking process that included presentation and discussion of preliminary findings at three international nursing meetings in 2015 and 2016.

RESULTS:

Four major themes emerged reflecting international priorities for the future of home care education, research, practice, and management: 1) Build the evidence base for home care; 2) Design better systems of care; 3) Develop leaders at all levels; and 4) Address payment and policy issues.

CONCLUSIONS:

Collectively, the findings provide a major call to action for nurse educators to re-design existing pre- and post-licensure educational programs to meet the growing demand for home care nurses. Innovations in education that focus on filling gaps in the evidence-base for community nursing practice, and improving access to continuing education and evidence-based resources for practicing home care nurses and nurse managers should be prioritized.