Biomaterial Database

Hospital Transfers of Nursing Home Residents: A Vignette Experiment on Nurses' Decision Making. 2019

Olivia Kada

1 Carinthia University of Applied Sciences, Austria.

Nursing home (NH) nurses play a key role in hospital transfer decisions. In case of unavailability of physicians, they have to decide alone. In doing so, they consider potential threats to residents' quality of life (QoL), but they also fear the consequences of wrong decisions. The present study examines the causal influence of these deliberations on nurses' transfer decisions and emotional strain. In all, 241 NH nurses participated in the experiment. The vignette describing a resident with deteriorating health state elicited either thoughts on residents' QoL, on legal consequences, or on QoL and legal consequences. In the QoL condition, the likelihood of a hospital transfer was lower compared with all other conditions. Emotional strain was stable across experimental conditions. When thoughts on QoL and legal consequences were induced at the same time, strain was positively correlated with the inclination to transfer the resident. Promoting QoL considerations can help to reduce avoidable transfers.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D009014	Morals	Standards of conduct that distinguish right from wrong.	Morality
D009735	Nursing Homes	Facilities which provide nursing supervision and limited medical care to persons who do not require hospitalization.	Homes, Nursing,Nursing Home
D009740	Nursing Staff	Personnel who provide nursing service to patients in an organized facility, institution, or agency.	Nursing Staffs,Staff, Nursing,Staffs, Nursing
D010360	Patient Transfer	Interfacility or intrahospital transfer of patients. Intrahospital transfer is usually to obtain a specific kind of care and interfacility transfer is usually for economic reasons as well as for the type of care provided.	Patient Dumping,Care Transition,Health Care Transition,Patient Transition,Patient Turfing,Transition of Care,Care Transition, Health,Care Transitions,Care Transitions, Health,Dumping, Patient,Health Care Transitions,Patient Transfers,Patient Transitions,Patient Turfings,Transfer, Patient,Transfers, Patient,Transition, Care,Transition, Health Care,Transition, Patient,Transitions, Care,Transitions, Health Care,Transitions, Patient,Turfing, Patient,Turfings, Patient
D011788	Quality of Life	A generic concept reflecting concern with the modification and enhancement of life attributes, e.g., physical, political, moral, social environment as well as health and disease.	HRQOL,Health-Related Quality Of Life,Life Quality,Health Related Quality Of Life
D003142	Communication	The exchange or transmission of ideas, attitudes, or beliefs between individuals or groups.	Miscommunication,Misinformation,Social Communication,Communication Programs,Communications Personnel,Personal Communication,Communication Program,Communication, Personal,Communication, Social,Communications, Social,Miscommunications,Misinformations,Personnel, Communications,Program, Communication,Programs, Communication,Social Communications
D003657	Decision Making	The process of making a selective intellectual judgment when presented with several complex alternatives consisting of several variables, and usually defining a course of action or an idea.	Credit Assignment,Assignment, Credit,Assignments, Credit,Credit Assignments
D006707	Homes for the Aged	Geriatric long-term care facilities which provide supervision and assistance in activities of daily living with medical and nursing services when required.	Old Age Homes,Residential Aged Care Facility,Senior Housing,Home, Old Age,Homes, Old Age,Housing, Senior,Old Age Home
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000368	Aged	A person 65 years of age or older. For a person older than 79 years, AGED, 80 AND OVER is available.	Elderly