PMID: 11011648

Issn Print: 0884-741X

Publication Date: 2000/01/01


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The “R” Word and the New Millennium

Leslie Jean Neal

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Excerpt

Every home health nurse has been affected by recent legislative and regulatory changes. Many former home health nurses have left the profession because they felt they had endured enough change and that their emotional health and the enjoyment of their work were being threatened. FIGURE
I’d like to propose that not only is change good but that documentation of its impact on nursing and nursing care is vital to the future of home health nursing. The study of the process and impact of change is research and it is research (the “R” word [Humphrey, 1997, p. 85]) that will ultimately demonstrate our worth.
OASIS is one example of research that attempts to measure the outcomes of intervention or, nonintervention. Common complaints about OASIS are that it lengthens visit time, potentially invades patient privacy, and detracts from our ability to provide nursing care to the patient. However, although I have complained about OASIS, I have also hailed the effort to gather data that would demonstrate to the world that home health nursing is a specialty and that the skills of home health professionals lead to positive outcomes and decreased hospitalizations.
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