Background China’s population is ageing at an accelerating pace, with chronic disease prevalence steadily rising, and a growing number of patients are opting to receive nursing care at home rather than enter hospital, thereby driving rapid and sustained growth in demand for “online booking, offline service” home nursing care service. The nation is actively promoting innovation in nursing care service models, with “online booking, offline service” home nursing care service emerging as a nascent stage. To refine this service, it is essential to gain a thorough understanding of the genuine experiences, key challenges and underlying needs of both nurses and patients/family caregivers throughout the service process. Objective To explore the lived experiences, key challenges, and improvement needs of nurses and patients/family caregivers involved in the “online booking, offline service” home nursing care service in China, in order to inform targeted strategies for service improvement. Methods A descriptive qualitative study was conducted between September and October 2025. Purposive and snowball sampling were used to recruit 16 nurses and 16 patients/family caregivers from five Grade A tertiary general hospitals in Shandong Province, China. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using inductive content analysis. Results Four core themes and 15 sub-themes were identified: (1) nurses’ professional gains through service provision (professional identity and value recognition, enhanced professional competencies and autonomous practice, and establishing mutually trusting nurse–patient relationships); (2) patients’ and families’ multidimensional value perception of the service (core health value perception, convenience and accessibility, emotional reassurance and support, and home-based comfort and caregiver support); (3) Challenges and risks in service delivery and use (the digital divide, personal safety and emergency response concerns, role conflict, occupational exposure and medical waste management, and difficulties in defining liability); (4) expectations for improving the service (strengthening publicity efforts, refining fee structures, and strengthening education and training for nurses). Conclusion The “online booking, offline service” home nursing care service created professional gains for nurses and multidimensional value for patients and family caregivers, but also raised concerns about access, affordability, safety, workforce support, and responsibility boundaries. Optimizing this emerging model requires equitable access, organizational support for nurses, clearer safety and responsibility mechanisms, transparent fee structures, and appropriate policy support.
Yu et al. (Thu,) studied this question.