Areas of Discharge Agreement and Disagreement Between Older Adult Patients and Nurses
The objectives of this study were to identify areas of agreement and disagreement between nursing staff and older adult patients about discharge needs, and to explore relationships between hospitalized older adults’ perceived postdischarge Activities of Daily Living (ADL) and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL) dependency, social networks, and quality of life. Differences between patients and nurses for the ADL scale showed that patients perceived themselves as being more independent with respect to ADLs upon discharge than did their nurses. Agreement between patients and nurses for the Quality of Life Index indicated high agreement about patients’ general well-being upon discharge. Positive relationships between overall IADL and both overall Social Network and Friend subscale scores were indicative of the positive effects of social support on patients’ perceptions of IADL independence. Implications for case management practice were suggested.