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Person-centred care and communication

SURF- Study of telephone nurses’ work with frequent callers

The overall aim of the research project is to describe frequent calling to Swedish Healthcare Direct, from the perspectives of both telephone nurses and frequent callers.

Concluded

Start

2016-01-09

Conclusion

2023-05-08

Main financing

Project manager at MDU

No partial template found

Previous research indicates that patients who visit healthcare frequently, frequent attenders, is a well-known phenomenon. Frequent attenders often feel misunderstood and rejected by healthcare. There is not as much research on people who return to care frequently by telephone, frequent callers, especially not from their perspective. The available research indicates that frequent callers occupy a significant part of the resources for healthcare institutions that can be reached by telephone.

We therefore want to examine this both from a caller's perspective and from a nurse's perspective. The data collection takes place on Swedish Healthcare Direct, which is aimed at all Sweden's residents and is often the first instance for healthcare seekers. The line is reachable 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The nurses' task is to make a medical assessment, refer them to the care and give self-care advice. They must also have time to show consideration for the calling person and person-centered care is sought. How do nurses experience answering calls from frequent callers and are there any strategies that would make it easier for them to answer these calls?

Furthermore, the project intends to gather existing research on frequent callers to see what needs to be researched more about. The patient perspective will shed light on how the callers themselves see their situation and their suggestions on how care can be designed to give them the help they seek. The answers that emerge can hopefully provide knowledge about the conditions for creating optimal care for frequent callers.


Project objectives

The objectives of the research are to understand the prerequisites to create optimal nursing care for frequent callers. Further, the project sheds light on telephone care and the telephone nurses working situation and challenges that are related to nursing via telephone.

This research relates to the following sustainable development goals