Cesar Fonseca, Telmo Aleixo, Rui Fontes and Ana Escoval
There is an aging population not only in Portugal but also worldwide. The nursing homes provide its users services adjusted to their needs. Therefore, these institutions should have specialized human resources in health care, such as Nurses. However in Portugal have a low presence of these professionals in nursing homes.
Objective: To identify a sensitive nursing care set of quality indicators in nursing homes.
Methodology: Using the method of a PICOD question, it was made a search in EBSCO (CINAHL Plus with Full Text, MEDLINE with Full Text, British Nursing Index), resulting in hundred and thirty eight articles in total. There were searched scientific articles published in full text (28-01-2009), between 1998/01/01 and 2008/12/31.
Results: From hundred and thirty eight articles we selected twelve and of this identified fourteen quality care indicators: resources to the emergency room; number of days of hospitalization; total days of hospitalization in advanced recovery units; number of medical procedures; sensory function; presence of urinary catheters; loss of function and activities of daily living; controlled use of drugs; use of nine or more different drugs; nutrition; control of infection; pressure ulcers prevalence; pain control; prevalence of falls.
Conclusion: The nursing provide an important contribution in improving quality in the nursing homes. The results seems to show that the introduction of these professionals has direct impact in reducing of the use of health services (emergency and hospital days), reducing the falls, better pain management, in prevalence of the number of pressure ulcers and increased functionality. This set of results has obtained from an international research and so, gives the opportunity to various nursing homes or students in very countries monitoring these indicators, to explore them with the aim to verify its applicability and adapt them to the local needs.
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