An Intervention to Improve Nurse-Physician Communication in Depression Care

Abstract

Depression in older adult home care recipients is frequently undetected and inadequately treated. Failed communication between home healthcare personnel and the patient's physician has been identified as a barrier for depression care. The purpose of this pilot intervention study was to improve nurse competency for communicating depression-related information to the physician. A single group pre-post experimental design. Two Medicare-certified home healthcare agencies serving an urban and suburban area in New York. Twenty-eight home care nurses, all female Registered Nurses. Two-hour skills training workshop. To evaluate the intervention, pre-post changes in effective nurse communication using Objective Structured Clinical Examinations and nurse survey reports. The intervention significantly improved the ability of the home care nurse to perform a case presentation in a complete and standard organized format pre versus postintervention. The intervention also increased nurse-reported certainty to communicate depression-related information to the physician. Our findings provide support for the ability of a brief, depression-focused communication skills training intervention to improve home care nurse competency for effectively communicating depression-related information to the physician.