Key result
Nurses identify access, transparency, trust, and communication as core themes for HF care continuity.
Why the study?
Heart failure causes varying care needs with risks of care fragmentation, but nurses' experiences of continuity of care in this setting are less explored.
Nurses play a crucial role as a 'hub' in promoting continuity of care for heart failure patients, requiring trusting relationships and seamless coordination across healthcare settings.
May guide nurse-led HF care coordination; leaves open effectiveness of targeted interventions.
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to describe nurses' experiences of continuity of care for patients with heart failure. BACKGROUND: Heart failure is a life-influencing condition that causes varying care needs over time with risks of fragmentation. Nurses play an important role in caring for patients with heart failure. However, nurses' experiences of continuity of care seem to be less explored in this context. DESIGN: A qualitative study with a descriptive design. METHODS: Four focus groups were chosen to collect the data, and the analysis was made by using a method for thematic analysis. A purposeful sampling of nurses (n = 14) with experiences from hospital-connected heart failure clinics, primary healthcare centres and municipal home healthcare settings was recruited. The COREQ checklist was used in this study. RESULTS: The nurses' experiences of continuity of care for patients with heart failure were described in four themes: access and flexibility, responsibility and transparency, trustful and caring relationships and communication and collaboration. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that nurses have an excellent position to act as the "hub" in caring for patients with heart failure, but they need to have the possibility of networking and establishing trusting relationships with their colleagues. From the nurses' point of view, mutual trust between the nurse, the patient and the patient's next of kin is crucial for promoting and maintaining continuity of care in patients with heart failure. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: To promote continuity of care for patients with heart failure, nurses expressed the necessity of establishing trusting relationships in a continuity-promoting organisation with seamless coordination. Nurses can be the "hub" supporting a person-centred care approach based on the patients' needs. There seems to be a need for better collaboration with common guidelines across and within primary healthcare centres, hospital-connected heart failure clinics and municipal home healthcare settings.
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Östman et al. (2020) studied Heart failure (n=14). Nurses identified four key themes for continuity of care in heart failure: access and flexibility, responsibility and transparency, trustful and caring relationships, and communication.
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