Concept Analysis of Health Care Transition in Adolescents with Chronic Conditions 12

• The concept analysis on health care transition in adolescents with chronic conditions will enable the scientific community to discuss salient issues using well-defined, uniform terminology.
• Transition is a central concept in nursing; however, transition in the contexts of health care and adolescents with chronic conditions requires further analysis using a common set of defining attributes.
• Rodgers’ evolutionary concept analysis was used to extract the following attributes for health care transition in adolescents with chronic conditions: definitions, surrogate terms, related concepts, antecedents, and consequences.
• A refined, working definition is presented: “Health care transition in adolescents with chronic conditions is a potentially stressful and emotional process in which flexibility and negotiation between the patient, parents, pediatric and adult health care providers are necessary in order to facilitate achievement of autonomous health-related decision-making and self-care within the adult health care setting.”
• Implications for nursing education, practice, policy, and research are vast for the concept of health care transition in adolescents with chronic conditions.

Children with chronic conditions are living into adulthood and present with unique needs. One such need is their transition from pediatric to adult health care. This paper examined the literature to analyze and synthesize the concept of transition within two contexts, health care and adolescents with chronic conditions. Fifty multidisciplinary sources were included for analysis. A refined, working definition of the concept of health care transition in adolescents with chronic conditions is presented. Results will enable the scientific community to discuss salient issues using well-defined, uniform terminology. Nursing implications are delineated to ensure that these youths thrive into adulthood.