Other Titles
Rising Star Poster/Presentation - Rapid Presentation Round
Abstract
Background: Home health nursing, a growing care model, caters to individuals seeking medical assistance within the comfort of their own homes. Predicted statistics indicate a 5% employment growth in this sector from 2014 to 2024, which necessitates a 48.6% increase in home health nurse employment. This surge underscores the need to address unique challenges faced by healthcare professionals in this field.
Purpose: This secondary analysis aims to explore and understand the safety concerns encountered by home healthcare nurses, emphasizing the importance of identifying and addressing these concerns to enhance safety and care provision in home settings.
Methods: This secondary analysis utilizes data from a parent-grounded theory study aimed at exploring home health and hospice nurses’ perceptions of caring for persons with severe and persistent mental illnesses. For the parent study, home health and hospice nurses were purposively and conveniently recruited through word of mouth and social media. Participants took part in semi-structured phone interviews. For this study, the researchers applied a thematic analysis design to a subset of the parent data, which involved stages of initial coding, theme development, and iterative refinement.
Results: Two major themes of Fear and Safety emerged. The theme of Safety included subthemes of safety concerns and nurse safety actions. Both themes describe the nurses’ experience, assessment, and subsequent actions when faced with various environmental, personal, and patient safety concerns. These themes have helped to identify patterns and connections regarding diverse scenarios nurses encounter in the home health setting.
Conclusions & Implications: This study emphasizes the pivotal role of home health nurses in enhancing patient care and safety. It calls for personalized care plans, patient-centered approaches, and interdisciplinary collaboration. These findings suggest the need for improved education, policies, and ongoing research to ensure the well-being of home health patients and nurses while ensuring that high-quality care is able to be safely delivered.
Notes
References:
Nix, Elizabeth PhD, RN, APRN, CNS, CDCES; Altom, Kacie MSN, RN, CNE, CMSRN. Safety Concerns Associated with Home Care Nursing. Home Healthcare Now 41(3):p 135-139, May/June 2023. | DOI: 10.1097/NHH.0000000000001161
Shahrestanaki, S. K., Rafii, F., Najafi Ghezeljeh, T., Farahani, M. A., & Majdabadi Kohne, Z. A. (2023). Patient safety in home health care: a grounded theory study. BMC health services research, 23(1), 467. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-023-09458-9
Trachsel, M. (2018). The ethical importance of assessing end-of-life care preferences in patients with severe and persistent mental illness. The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry : Official Journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry, 26(1), 98–99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jagp.2017.09.026
Trachsel, M., Hodel, M. A., Irwin, S. A., Hoff, P., Biller-Andorno, N., & Riese, F. (2019). Acceptability of palliative care approaches for patients with severe and persistent mental illness: A survey of psychiatrists in Switzerland. BMC Psychiatry, 19(1), 111. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-019-2091-x
Wilson, R., Gaughran, F., Whitburn, T., Higginson, I. J., & Gao, W. (2019). Place of death and other factors associated with unnatural mortality in patients with serious mental disorders: Population-based retrospective cohort study. BJPsych Open, 5(2), e23. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjo.2019.5
Sigma Membership
Beta Sigma
Type
Presentation
Format Type
Text-based Document
Study Design/Type
Other
Research Approach
Other
Keywords:
Home Health Nurses, Occupational Safety, Nurse Attitudes, Risk Assessment, Home Health Nursing
Recommended Citation
Faybisovich, Natalie, "Home Health Nurse Perceptions of Safety in the Workplace" (2026). Creating Healthy Work Environments (CHWE). 25.
https://www.sigmarepository.org/chwe/2024/presentations_2024/25
Conference Name
Creating Healthy Work Environments
Conference Host
Sigma Theta Tau International
Conference Location
Washington, DC, USA
Conference Year
2024
Rights Holder
All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record. All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository. All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.
Review Type
Abstract Review Only: Reviewed by Event Host
Acquisition
Proxy-submission
Date of Issue
2026-02-16
Home Health Nurse Perceptions of Safety in the Workplace
Washington, DC, USA
Background: Home health nursing, a growing care model, caters to individuals seeking medical assistance within the comfort of their own homes. Predicted statistics indicate a 5% employment growth in this sector from 2014 to 2024, which necessitates a 48.6% increase in home health nurse employment. This surge underscores the need to address unique challenges faced by healthcare professionals in this field.
Purpose: This secondary analysis aims to explore and understand the safety concerns encountered by home healthcare nurses, emphasizing the importance of identifying and addressing these concerns to enhance safety and care provision in home settings.
Methods: This secondary analysis utilizes data from a parent-grounded theory study aimed at exploring home health and hospice nurses’ perceptions of caring for persons with severe and persistent mental illnesses. For the parent study, home health and hospice nurses were purposively and conveniently recruited through word of mouth and social media. Participants took part in semi-structured phone interviews. For this study, the researchers applied a thematic analysis design to a subset of the parent data, which involved stages of initial coding, theme development, and iterative refinement.
Results: Two major themes of Fear and Safety emerged. The theme of Safety included subthemes of safety concerns and nurse safety actions. Both themes describe the nurses’ experience, assessment, and subsequent actions when faced with various environmental, personal, and patient safety concerns. These themes have helped to identify patterns and connections regarding diverse scenarios nurses encounter in the home health setting.
Conclusions & Implications: This study emphasizes the pivotal role of home health nurses in enhancing patient care and safety. It calls for personalized care plans, patient-centered approaches, and interdisciplinary collaboration. These findings suggest the need for improved education, policies, and ongoing research to ensure the well-being of home health patients and nurses while ensuring that high-quality care is able to be safely delivered.
Description
Explore home health nurses' perceptions regarding the care of persons with severe and persistent mental illnesses. Pivotal themes of Fear and Safety have emerged through a revealing thematic analysis of safety concerns and experiences of home healthcare nurses. These findings suggest the need for improved education, policies, and ongoing research.