title: Medication management at home: enhancing nurse's skills and improving patient satisfaction--a longitudinal study.
abstract: The purpose of this longitudinal study was to improve nurse medication management skills during home care (HC) visits, and thus improve care quality and the related patient ratings of nurse performance. Nurses completed presurveys asking how often they asked to see, taught about, and explained side effects of patient medications. Two focus groups were held with HC nurses to determine barriers to provision of such medication interventions, followed by presentation of a series of 5 medication-related educational sessions. HC nurse's surveys 6 months later reveal an increased frequency of medication skill performance, and patient ratings in these same areas improved statistically significantly, nearing or surpassing national benchmarks.
authors: Fairfield University School of Nursing, Fairfield, CT 06824, USA. dmager@fairfield.edu
authors: Diana R
authors: DR
authors: Mager
authors: Mary
authors: M
authors: Morrissey Ross
mesh_terms: D002983:Clinical Competence; D017144:Focus Groups; D064650:Home Health Nursing / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D054539:Medication Therapy Management / Q000193:education / Q000592:standards; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D010865:Pilot Projects; D058996:Quality Improvement