Journeying Home: Elderly Patients' Experiences and Needs During Hospital Discharge- A Meta-Synthesis.
Sara Shamim, Gitte Bunkenborg, Mette Geil Kollerup and 1 others
PMID 41017050WHAT IT FOUND
Older patients with several long-term conditions leaving hospital for home wanted understandable, timely discharge information and a role that matched their preference.
Some welcomed family advocacy; others felt controlled. Rushed, jargon-filled discharge left them anxious.
Key findings
01Discharge brought both excitement to resume daily life and worries about disease progression and not feeling physically ready to go home.
02Patients often could not understand or remember what doctors told them, and written discharge materials were hard to follow when they used medical terminology or were too general.
03Next of kin helped patients remember information and arrange support, but some patients experienced family involvement as controlling or unnecessary.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The nine studies came from high-income countries and did not report Asian or African ethnic backgrounds, so the themes may not fit all populations. Only studies published in English, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian were included, so relevant patient groups may be missing. The synthesis did not formally assess study quality, so weak primary studies could affect the themes. People discharged to non-home settings, surgical patients and patients in terminal care were excluded, so this says little about those transitions. The included studies had small samples, ranging from 9 to 65 patients, so the themes describe experiences rather than estimate how common they are.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat these themes as proof that family involvement or communication changes improve outcomes. The paper reports experiences, not tested interventions, and some patients preferred clinicians to make decisions.