Literature Review: Nurses’ safety in the Home Hospital Environment

Abstract

The home hospital which is a part of home health care (HHC), has not been around for long, so not too many studies have been carried out that can help nurses stay safe in this environment. The aim of this thesis is to produce information that will help educate the nurses on how to feel safe at their home hospital working environment. The purpose of this thesis is to describe the factors that promote and the factors that hinder the safety of nurses in their home hospital environment. The research questions where; What are the factors that promote nurses’ safety in the home hospital environment? & What are the factors that hinder nurses’ safety in the home hospital environment? Method: This is a descriptive literature review conducted from 2010 - 2021 on nurses’ safety in a home hospital environment. CINAHL, PubMed, Elsevier, and Google scholar where the primary database for the search of literature. Keywords included “home care”, “home hospital nursing” and “occupational safety of nurses” in 10 articles met the criteria. Findings: Data analysis of the literature pointed out five categories for hindering factors (1) Hindering factors due to geographical location (2) Hindering factors due to workplace setting (3) Hindering factors due to patient and family members (4) Hindering factors due to the nurses themselves and (5) Hindering factors due to the home care institution. There were also three categories for promoting factors (1) Promoting factors by the health sector. (2) Promoting factors by the care institution and (3) Promoting factors by the nurses themselves. Conclusion: The nurse’s safety should be ensured prior to their leaving the work environment and burn out feelings should to be avoided.