Introduction

In every research project or study the end is always the reporting of the results obtained from the various activities done during the data collection process (Ganann, McAiney, & Johnson, 2018). The research project was focused on investigating whether extra training of nurses in transitional care regarding medication reconciliation, communication with the patient in transitional care, and evaluation of the need for follow up test enhances the outcome in transitional caregiving. After the collection of data, various conclusions were arrived at that showed that extra training of nurses through the different aspects of the medical profession enhances the nurses to adapt to transitional caregiving. This was achieved through the visiting of various medical facilities and the collection of different information and data from the nurses in the facilities. The entire research project involved the use of both qualitative and quantitative designs through mixed research methods. Some of these methods included the use of questionnaires, sampling, interviews, surveying, and documentation. After their completion, the final results were obtained, and it is also important to also note that the project had some few limitations that if not looked into can lead to some drawbacks to the future nursing studies.

Demographics of the population

The population that was involved in the research project mostly involved the nurses who are the primary caregivers to the patients. After obtaining permission from the relevant authorities, different research methods were used, and the first method was that of interviews. A total of 40 nurses were interviewed from five different hospitals to find out whether transitional caregiving was improved by the application of the pieces of training on nurses. Among the 40 nurses, 32 of them had previously received training on transitional caregiving while eight were interested but had not yet gotten the chance to attend them. Some of the interview questions were about their feeling towards the transitional caregiving pieces of training and the question of whether they are effective or not. The questions involved the transitional aspects of medication reconciliation, communication with the patient in transitional care, and evaluation on the nurses.

Questionnaires were the other type of data collection that was used during the entire research project to obtain the desired results. A total of 11 medical facilities were involved in the answering of the questionnaires while the total number of nurses that participated in the process was 115. This was the data collection method that brought a lot of feedback due to the demography of the population of the nurses involved. 103 nurses who participated in the filling of the questionnaires had received transitional caregiving pieces of training in the past and were the perfect audience to give feedback on the research topic. The other remaining 12 caregivers had an interest but had not yet involved themselves in the transitional caregiving training. The questionnaires were open-ended questionnaires that gave the respondents the opportunity to give feedback according to what they thought was right and did not give them some restrictions.

Observations were the other method of data collection that was used, and it involved several hospitals which were assessed. There were a total of 11 medical facilities where the evaluation of how nurses who had received training in transitional caregiving behaved as compared to those who did not. From there different results were obtained and contributed significantly to the final results. The last method of data collection that was used was that of documentation. This involved the perusing and obtaining relevant information that could help bring some conclusion results to the research topic. It also involved the checking of previous studies that had been conducted in the past on transitional caregiving for the nurses and the results that were obtained from the studies. This was done from library worksheets and evaluation from documents from the 11 medical facilities that had been chosen.

Descriptive data points

After the evaluation of the questionnaires, the research was able to find out that being a nurse involves not just the primary role of providing healthcare services but also interact with the population living in the community. It is, therefore, to ensure that the characters one plays in the community fully respects the dignity of the people. 34 nurses were able to prove that authenticity during interactions as well as maintaining a positive attitude is vital to make them comfortable and more responsive when taking information or views from them. In a job that requires collaboration with the community, advocacy skills such as confidentiality and autonomy are of great importance (Kim, & Park, 2017). Another role that the study identified that can help significantly in improving community health is the identifying of the cultural values in the community that promote health such as values, characteristics, and strengths that exist among the population and enhancing them through use of participatory practices.  Identifying critical health issues in the community and determining the ones that require a high priority than the rest was found to be an essential skill that nurses can use as a community nurse to boost the healthcare of a community.

In the population that was examined, it identified gaps that came with the need to improve healthcare overpower the resources available to achieve the same. Transitional caregiving involves being responsible and going beyond the nursing regular teachings as the study was able to find out through the results given by the interview. For example, the need to have clean and safe drinking and recreational water in the community that has been slowed down due to inadequate resources necessary for providing fluoridated water. Most people agree that prevention is better than cure, as expressed in the excerpt #@$%#@$, that states that allocating more resources to curb health problems is better than having to face the outcome of it. This stresses the need for allocating more resources aimed at improving community health for all by reducing these gaps.

According to “The Healthy People 2020” which is a federal government strategic plan that provides science-based ten-year nation objectives for improving health equality for all Americans, some documentation towards the effectiveness of training on transitional caregiving to the nurses (Gibson, Kelly, & Kaplan, 2012). One of the several goals of this plan is to create social and physical environments that promote good health for all. This objective can be reached if specific steps are taken in the community. One of these steps is reducing outdoor air pollutants. The population should be guided and educated on the effects of air pollutants and actions that can be taken to reduce exposure levels. Another step that the study found to be very crucial to achieving this goal is by teaching the nurses on the different methods on how to improve their transitional caregiving skills. This can be achieved by developing and promoting strategies that provide benefits of fluoridation and utilizing tools to conduct surveys to monitor health care quality at different medical facilities and information from those caregivers who have undergone extra and modern training and other recreational facilities. These are the significant steps that are needed to achieve the goal of improving the nurses and caregivers towards the achievement of transitional caregiving.

Another finding from the research project on transitional caregiving was that on the distribution and development of outreach materials to primary audiences such as teachers, parents, students and the community at large who spend time with the patients after they are discharged from the hospitals. Transitional caregiving according to the study involves the passing of information from nurses to other people through mass education and other educational processes. Many of the nurses that were interviewed stated that they do give the necessary information on how to communicate and take care of patients ones are released from the hospitals. Lastly, all the nurses and individuals involved in the entire process agreed that transitional caregiving training is an important aspect that should be introduced to the entire medical delivery facilities.

Research Limitations and Recommendation for Further Research

Firstly, this research is classified as a non-experimental study because the survey’s conditions were not tailor-made to discover any causation. One can only identify differences and linkages between the existing variables. One of the limitations is that the researchers chose convenience sampling to take care of the limited cost and time. Thus, the readers should be careful with the findings since they are not representative as required in such studies (Waldrop et al. 2015). There is also a need to worry about the defects associated with questionnaires since the participants might tend to manipulate the answers.

Another possible limitation of the study is that only 80% of those interviewed in the different medical facilities had finalized their transitional caregiving training. Thus, since others had not received the training, they were unsure of the results or the advantages that are obtained from getting transitional caregiving training. Therefore, this is a possible cause of bias, which limits the results. The next limitation is that the survey only engaged nurses meaning that getting information regarding their doctors and other officials was overlooked. The doctors and other hospital officials could have been engaged too.

To deal with the limitations highlighted, it is recommendable to conduct a more substantial investigation which would involve a representative sample to ascertain the outcomes. This will allow for generalization (Aneshensel et al. 2015). Additionally, there is a need to interview nurses from different hospitals in the country since they have different preferences and exposures. Moreover, while dealing with doctors and other professions, the researchers would engage them since they are sure of their occupations. This would, therefore, increase the reliability of the data. For future research, there is a need to know that protection and care are required when handling data and information during the survey such as demanding procedures. Future studies are essential because many of the health and medical resources and equipment are becoming technological as each day passes and this training on these aspects and elimination of the said limitations would work as a bonus.

Conclusions

Different data collection methods that were used were in a way effective and contributed to the final results that were reported. It was discovered that transitional caregiving training went beyond the nurses themselves and was supposed to be also done to the doctors and the members of the community. This is because all of them are also involved with the interaction with the patients hence making it necessary for them to be trained too. The research was an excellent exposure to interact with the caregivers and get to learn a lot on their views on transitional caregiving. The research also helped in realizing some of the limitations to the research topic and some of the recommendations that may be implemented in future similar studies. Some vast gaps are in existence with the current caregiving and hence the need for the implementation of the transitional caregiving training to address the gaps.

References

Gibson, M. J., Kelly, K. A., & Kaplan, A. K. (2012). Family caregiving and transitional care: A            critical review. Family caregiver alliance, National Center on caregiving.

Aneshensel, C. S., Pearlin, L. I., Mullan, J. T., Zarit, S. H., & Whitlatch, C. J. (2015). Profiles in       Caregiving: The fantastic career. Elsevier.

Waldrop, D. P., Kramer, B. J., Skretny, J. A., Milch, R. A., & Finn, W. (2015). Final transitions:      Family caregiving at the end of life. Journal of Palliative Medicine, 8(3), 623-638.

Kim, M., & Park, L. (2017). The effect of family caregiving on the well-being of older adults as caregivers or care recipients. Innovation in aging, 1(suppl_1), 68-68.

Ganann, R., McAiney, C., & Johnson, W. (2018). Engaging older adults as partners in            transitional care research. CMAJ, 190(Suppl), S40-S41.