The Monthly Nursing Home Visit: Does Use of a Template Improve The Quality of the Visit?

Abstract

As the baby boomer population continues to age, the number of older adults in the United States continues to rise as well, which has and will continue to result in an ongoing increase in the nursing home population. Challenges in nursing home care include assuring the provision of comprehensive quality care, person centered care, and continuity of care. This DNP project evaluated a comprehensive template for nurse practitioners to use when completing monthly nursing home visits that would help address these challenges. The purpose of this project was to evaluate nurse practitioner satisfaction regarding the effectiveness of the tool in assuring comprehensive, quality and patient centered care when completing monthly nursing home visits. This was accomplished via a descriptive analysis of 10 nurse practitioners providing care in nursing homes. A Likert scale questionnaire was used before and after the nurse practitioners used the tool for a period of two months. All 10 participants agreed or strongly agreed that they would recommend the tool for use by nurse practitioners when completing monthly nursing home visits. Seven of the participants agreed or strongly agreed that the tool helped improve overall quality of the visit. The results demonstrated that the monthly nursing home assessment tool was beneficial in improving the quality of the visits and that there are future implications for use of the tool by not only nurse practitioners who practice in this setting but also for nurse practitioner students and physicians.