Discharge Plans
Questions Received:
Response:
I am doing a small scale research project on effect of the use of a detailed discharge plan on coping behaviour of an adult caregiver of dependent elderly patients. I am presently finding difficulty in looking for questionnaire in determining the level of coping behaviour and level of dependency of the elderly patient.
I do not want to formulate my own checklist as I need to go through troublesome steps of finding the validity of reliability of the checklist. Do you have some references from the net or recommended books for such checklists?
7th July 1999
We have not yet found a
validated questionnaire that can be used to determine the level of coping
behaviour and dependency in elderly patients. However, the following references
and websites may be of help or direct you towards other suitable sources:
References
Clarke, C. (1999) Family care giving for people with dementia: some implications for policy and professional practice. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 29(3), 712-720 (Mar).
(research in the North of England into carers and their relations with health and social services)
Watson, R., Modeste, N., and Catolico, O. (1998) The relationship between caregiver burden and self-care deficits in former rehabilitation patients. Rehabilitation Nursing, 23(5), 258-262 (Sep/Oct).
(research into effects on carers of loss of function in those they care for)
Williams, A. (1995) Dependency scoring in palliative care. Nursing-Standard, 10(5), 27-30 (Oct 25).
These references were found via the British Nursing Index (Mar 1999).
Websites
The King’s Fund: www.kingsfund.org.uk
(publications about carers such as: "Taking action to support carers. A carers guide for commissioners and managers.")
Centre for Health Economics, University of York: www.york.ac.uk/inst/che/
(includes information about research programmes and publications) Centre for Health Economics
Nuffield Institute for Health, University of Leeds: www.leeds.ac.uk/nuffield/
(document lists can be searched online) Nuffield Institute for Health, University of Leeds: www.leeds.ac.uk/nuffield/
We are grateful to Cathy Weeks, Clinical Nurse Manager, Elderly Care at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, Wonford, Exeter for her help with this response.