Review: patients in nursing-led units are better prepared for discharge than those receiving usual care
P Griffiths
Correspondence to: Dr P Griffiths, King’s College London, London, UK; peter.griffiths@kcl.ac.uk
QUESTION
Are nursing-led inpatient units (NLUs) more effective than usual inpatient care in preparing patients for discharge?
METHODS
Data sources:
Medline, CINAHL, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, Cochrane Library, Healthcare Management Information Consortium database, and British Nursing Index (to November 2006); Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care Group’s specialised register (to October 2006); ISI Web of Knowledge (to January 2007); and experts.
Study selection and assessment:
controlled trials that compared nurse-managed care in an NLU with usual inpatient care on a general acute hospital ward (managed by physicians) in adult patients after acute admission for any physical health condition. NLU care must have been a substitute for some or all of the acute hospital stay, rather than an addition to it. 8 randomised controlled trials (n = 1147), 2 quasi-randomised trials (n = 749), and 1 controlled before–after study met the selection criteria (range of …
