Kanmin-Kogaku Column #20: Hospital and Community Nursing Cooperation to Support Peace of Mind in Recuperation
In general, "medical care" continues as patients move between medical facilities and their homes or caregiving facilities. Therefore, the consistency and continuity of treatment and care for each patient are crucial, which is why many hospitals have established "community liaison offices." Additionally, the need for home nursing stations is increasing in the community. By ensuring strong information collaboration between hospital nursing and home nursing, patients can smoothly transition to home care after discharge. The same applies when being admitted. Thus, to communicate nursing information about admissions and discharges with consistency, objectivity, and accuracy, we utilize "nursing summaries."
The Kawasaki Nursing Association holds exchange meetings that involve nurses working in community liaison offices at local hospitals and those from home nursing stations. Each meeting features lively discussions, providing an opportunity to mutually understand the status of each other's work and share challenges, resulting in a revitalizing experience for participants. This initiative is unique to us as the only city-level nursing association in the country. Due to difficulties in communication during the COVID-19 pandemic, we discussed "nursing summaries" as a theme for the exchange meetings for four consecutive years until last year. From these discussions, we compiled a report summarizing the information needed by nurses in hospitals and the community when transitioning care, which was distributed to related facilities in April of this year.
The most important aspect is the "attitude of conveying necessary nursing information to patients in a timely manner," ensuring that information is not delayed due to bureaucratic procedures. Detailed notes on timing for phone calls and other specifics are included. However, beyond this sincere commitment, improvements in the reliability and efficiency of information sharing through engineering are also needed in the future. We envision a future where patient conditions can be monitored at home with the same level of detail as in hospitals, enabling appropriate nursing care anytime and anywhere. We are building this future together with Project CHANGE, delegating tasks like document creation and data entry to robots, allowing nurses to spend ample time engaging with patients.
Akie Hotta
Chairperson, Kawasaki Nursing Association
