Outpatient Emergency Care for Nursing Home Residents: A Status Quo From a Nursing Perspective

Aim of the study At present about 2 million people need care in Germany, about one third of them live in old people's homes or nursing homes. Outpatient emergency care of nursing home residents is ensured by primary care physicians, the medical emergency service and the emergency services. Emergency care has rarely been examined from the perspective of nurses. Therefore, in our study, we investigated how the nurses perceive medical care in medical emergencies and what suggestions for improvements they have. Methods In 2015/16, guided interviews with a total of 13 females and one male elderly care nurses in northern Rhineland-Palatinate were conducted. The interviews were digitally recorded and literally transcribed. Evaluation was performed using the qualitative content analysis Mayring with MAXQDA ((R)) 12. Results In the case of an acute deterioration in the general condition of a resident, the family doctor in charge was first called in. It was difficult for the nursing staff to contact the physician in charge during consultation hours. The quality of the emergency care was dependent on the respective practice structure. Outside the opening hours of the surgery, the emergency medical service took over care of the patients. These doctors did not know the patients, which, from the point of view of the nursing care, was a burden for the residents since they had to face new doctors. Emergency physicians have long access routes, which led to delays, even in emergencies. Some nurses wanted the old system back, where the home care physicians were also available over the weekend by telephone. Overall, the request was a better care of residents. Conclusion GPs are the main contact persons for medical emergencies for the nursing staff. However, most physicians are only available during office hours. From the point of view of care, it would make sense to create incentives for the general practitioners to be available for emergencies even outside their consulting hours.