Abstract
Home care nurses have become the main references in home care for vulnerable patients. In patients’ homes they offer comprehensive and continuous care to both the vulnerable population and their families. The aim of this qualitative study was to explore experiences and perspectives of home care nurses regarding the care of vulnerable patients in Spain. We conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews with 15 home care nurses working with a vulnerable population. From a data analysis, two themes and four subthemes emerged: (1) “barriers to providing home care to vulnerable populations”, with the following subthemes: “the particularities of the patient and their home caregivers” and “perceived barriers for the involvement of home care nurses in the care”; and (2) “the emotional cost of home care” with the subthemes “home care is draining for caregivers” and “the impact of home care on the home care nurses”. These findings show us that nurses face a number of difficulties in home care for vulnerable patients. The training of nurses in certain competencies and skills by the social health services would enhance the quality of care offered to these patients.
Highlights
Primary health care in Spain provides the services of prevention and promotion of health, acute and chronic care, home care and community care activities [1]
All of them help us to understand how home care nurses perceive the care of vulnerable patients at home
The home care of the vulnerable patient depends on the close collaboration between the patient, family and home care nurses, as well as a good health system provider of resources
Summary
Primary health care in Spain provides the services of prevention and promotion of health, acute and chronic care, home care and community care activities [1]. The home care offered covers a population of all ages and in different social and health circumstances [6]. Significant fragments of the text close to the research question were selected as citations, organized and coded according to their content. The first and last author grouped significant fragments of data into sub-themes and themes based on their similarities. A table with examples of significant quotes, units of meaning, subthemes, and themes was developed (Table 3). This analysis was verified by the second author. A computer-assisted qualitative data analysis program, ATLAS.ti version 9.0 (Scientific Software Development GmbH, Berlin, Germany), was used to facilitate the understanding of meaningful fragments, organize and code the data
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