Community nursing care of the elderly during transformation of the primary health care system.

PURPOSE Worsening of health as well as raising disability in course of aging lead to the increase in the needs for medical and nursing services. The on-going reforms of the primary health care system has brought the organizational transformation in community nursing care into the forms of non-public community nursing units. The aim of the study was to describe the characteristics of community nursing care provided to older people with regard to the differences between a traditional model of the public (SPZOZ) and new model of non-public units (NZOZ). MATERIAL AND METHODS The study was carried out in all 113-community nurses employed in Bialystok, regardless of the form of employment. The questionnaire was answered by 101 nurses, from which one was excluded due to double employment in public (SPZOZ) and non-public (NZOZ) settings. From among of the remaining 100, 76 were employed in SPZOZ and 24 in NZOZ. As the research tool was used the questionnaire. RESULTS The data obtained show the predominance of the therapeutic (95%) and diagnostic (78%) services which were more frequently provided by nurses employed in public sector (SPZOZ). Assessment of social situation as well as a caring process, education was rarely provided in both groups of nurses. CONCLUSIONS Mostly instrumental and therapeutic activities predominated in the community nursing. Generally, any significant differences between two settings of nursing care there were not found. The traditional model of community nursing care enables the realization the full professional competence of nurse in the primary health care system.