A report on the development and evaluation of a television program entitled No place like home - a look at home care, a public information program

• Main Author: Wicks, Rene
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Memorial University of Newfoundland 1981
• Subjects: Newfoundland
• Online Access: https://research.library.mun.ca/7923/; https://research.library.mun.ca/7923/5/Wicks_ReneJohn.pdf; https://research.library.mun.ca/7923/6/Wicks_ReneJohn_pdfa.pdf; https://research.library.mun.ca/7923/7/No_Place_Like_Home.mp4

Hospital-based home care is a practise that has become prevalent in North America within the last fifteen years, stemming from the belief that hospital personnel should be responsible for patient care beyond the confines of the hospital building. An outgrowth of the philosophy has been the establishment, in many hospitals, of personnel whose responsibility is to assess patients upon admission and to plan immediately for discharge. It is maintained that discharge planning can reduce the length of stay for the many individuals and that full recovery can be achieved at home. Essential to home care are the services of a number of community-based agencies whose efforts can be coordinated by the hospital's referral nurse. Such agencies meet a variety of needs, including nursing care, physiotherapy, socialization, and basic homemaking. -- At St. Clare's Mercy Hospital in St. John's, Newfoundland, attempts were being made to achieve optimum utilization of the community's home care services. The referral personnel, however, due to heavy workload and constraints of time, were unable to review thoroughly the cases of all potential patients for home care. One solution was to have the patients or members of their families take the initiative. Unfortunately, a large majority of individuals knew little about home care, and were certainly unaware of the varied services available. Consequently, many of the services were being underutilized. -- As a solution to the problem, a television program was developed, its broad objective being to increase the number of referrals to home care by broadening the knowledge base of the public. The program was designed to provide a basic overview of home care, as well as descriptions of the community agencies available to residents of Newfoundland and Labrador. Through implementation of such a program, patients and family members were encouraged to contact the referral nurse of any member of the health team to obtain a personal assessment for a home care option. -- The program was produced ...