THE QUALITY OF ASSESSMENT VISITS IN COMMUNITY NURSING

The aim of this study was the measurement of the quality of assessment visits of community nurses in The Netherlands. Process criteria were derived for the quality of the assessment visits from the quality stan dards of community nursing care established by Appelman et al. Over a period of 8 weeks, a representative sample of 108 community nurses and 49 community nursing auxiliaries at 47 different locations paid a tot al number of 433 assessment visits. The nursing activities were record ed for each visit. The results suggested that most assessment visits ( 88%) were paid by community nurses. During the assessment visits, comm unity nurses more often paid attention to questions and expectations o f the patient than nursing auxiliaries did. Furthermore, the quality o f taking case histories in the actual practice of assessment appeared to be high in general. However, nearly half of the nurses did not enqu ire whether the patient received care from other health care professio nals. The drafting of the care plan was, on average, of a lesser quali ty. In particular, the re-assessment of patients was not systematicall y planned.