Patient discharge planning refers to an activity that facilitates the transfer of the clients to other health care facilities safely and smoothly in order to maintain the continuity of the service provided. Patient discharge planning includes any education and special skills training that the clients and their families may need. The knowledge and attitudes of the clients with coronary heart disease regarding recurrence prevention was still lacking because information on recurrence prevention is only given to the clients who are going home.
A lack of knowledge on the part of the client and family had an impact on the client’s unpreparedness to face repatriation, so they often return to the emergency room with minor problems. Optimal discharge planning is an important element used to provide specific information, to reduce anxiety and to meet any educational needs. The influence of optimal discharge planning was already known by the health workers but discharge planning cannot be done optimally. Heart disease is the number one cause of death globally and an estimated 17.9 million people died of heart disease in 2016. It represents 31% of all global deaths. The incidence of heart disease in Indonesia reached 1.5% or 15 out of 1000 population in 2018.
The low level of readiness of the patients to go home was associated with a higher incidence of readmission by 3 to 5 times. The successful implementation of discharge planning was influenced by communication, coordination, collaboration and the roles and functions of the related parties in addition to the use of structured instruments and the evaluation of the preparation process of returning in order to produce standardized discharge planning. Educational tools for standardized patients can be an alternative choice.
In previous studies that were exploratory in nature, the implementation of discharge planning has been done but the implementation of discharge planning in terms of the medical personnel has not yet been developed. This research explores the implementation of discharge planning from the viewpoint of multiple medical personnel and it has been found that there needs to be a rearrangement of the work schedules involved and job design to support optimal discharge planning. The rearrangement includes a revised form and guidelines for discharge planning. This study also supports academic faculties and other researchers to continue to improve and innovate the implementation of discharge planning.
Authors: Rahmatul Fitriyah, Nursalam Nursalam, and Ita Maulidiawati
Details of the research available at: https://e-journal.unair.ac.id/JNERS/article/view/20519
