Date of Conferral

2015

Degree

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

School

Nursing

Advisor

Judith Cornelius

Abstract

Ineffective transitional care programs for ensuring the continuation of care from the hospital setting to the home setting often result in rehospitalization for elderly heart failure patients age 65 and older. The purpose of this project was to develop a home health transitional care program for elderly patients transitioning from inpatient settings to home settings using care bundles consisting of evidence-based practices to reduce preventable rehospitalizations within 30 days of discharge. The home-based chronic care model, which provides a foundation for home health's integral role in chronic disease management by ensuring patient-centered evidence-based care, guided the development of this program. The developmental process elicited feedback from a team of home health advisory members, 3 home health experts, and 2 health care consumers who may use this program in the future. The readability of the program was at a 5th grade level for easy comprehension. A 3-item survey was given to 2 members from the target population, and a 5-item survey was given to 3 content experts to evaluate the transitional program. The advisory members were asked to read and provide feedback on the transitional care program. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics to obtain a content validity ratio score of 1.00. Findings suggested universal agreement on the content of the transitional care program, which was developed as a resource tool to provide evidence-based care bundle interventions from scholarly literature. Implications for social change include improving the outcomes of elderly heart failure patient by providing home health care agencies with a comprehensive transitional care program to prevent avoidable rehospitalizations and help patients effectively manage the disease.

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