Community nursing support for clients with schizophrenia

A true experimental, posttest only, control group design was used to pilot test the effectiveness of a telephone nursing intervention in increasing co mmunity survival, and decreasing the number and length of rehospitalization s for persons with schizophrenia. The vulnerability model was used as a; fr amework for the study. The intervention was hypothesized to function as a m oderating factor to reduce the effects of stress on vulnerable persons with schizophrenia. Experimental subjects received telephone nursing interventi on weekly for 3 months; control subjects received informational calls at we eks 6 and 12. Readmission rates were 13% (n = 2) for experimental subjects and 23% (n = 5) for controls. Compared with controls, experimental subjects experienced a 4% increase in community survival and: a 27% reduction in le ngth of stay if readmission occurred. These preliminary data suggest that t elephone intervention can increase community survival in persons with schiz ophrenia. Future studies should focus on increasing sample size and refinin g the intervention. Copyright (C) 2001 by W.B. Saunders Company.