title: Nurse home visit programs for the elderly.
abstract: Nurses are the largest professional provider of health care services in the home setting. However, nurse home visit programs are diverse. The purpose of this review was to examine the many factors that influence the effectiveness of nurse home visit programs for older adults. Donebedian's Quality Assessment Model was used to organize the review using the components of structure, process, and outcome. A total of 60 home visit studies were identified that met the following criteria: (1) nurses were a major or only provider of the intervention, (2) the intervention was delivered by home visits, and (3) the study included a comparison group. This review demonstrates the complexity of variables that determine the effectiveness of home visit interventions. Many studies demonstrated lower overall health care costs for the intervention group with either improved or at least no change in clinical outcomes.
authors.affiliation: UW-Milwaukee College of Nursing, Wisconsin, USA.
authors.forename: Karen Dorman
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Marek
authors.forename: Carol Dean
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Baker
mesh_terms: D000359:Aftercare; D000368:Aged; D003152:Community Health Nursing / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003266:Continuity of Patient Care; D005851:Geriatric Nursing / Q000458:organization & administration*; D017048:Health Care Costs; D006299:Health Services for the Aged / Q000458:organization & administration; D006792:House Calls / Q000191:economics; D006801:Humans; D016294:Models, Nursing; D015403:Nursing Evaluation Research / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration; D010343:Patient Admission; D010351:Patient Discharge; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012107:Research Design / Q000592:standards; D017751:Safety Management / Q000458:organization & administration