Psychiatric Home-Visiting Nurses’ Views on the Care Information Required of Psychiatric Hospital Nurses

The “construction of a community-based comprehensive care system for mental disorders” has been promoted in Japan. However, nurses in psychiatric hospitals do not intervene with community resources and support networks in Japan. This study aimed to determine the care information required by home visit nurses from psychiatric hospital nurses. A qualitative descriptive research design was employed. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine psychiatric home-visiting nurses, and content analysis was performed to analyze the data. Findings revealed 319 narratives about the information that psychiatric home-visiting nurses seek from psychiatric hospital nurses, which were classified into six main categories. Information needed for home-visiting nurses to provide care includes the following : 1) to build trust with home-visiting service users, 2) to help home-visiting service users live according to their wishes, 3) to help home-visiting service users continue treatment in the community, 4) to perform symptom management, 5) to provide family care, and 6) to protect the safety of home visiting nurses during home visits. Nurses in psychiatric hospitals should communicate this information to nurses who provide psychiatric home care. This will improve the quality of continuing care for home care users and support their recovery in community living.