Nurses' Experience of Caring for Patients in the Community After Discharge With an Interventional Radiology Drain in Ireland: A Qualitative Study

Interventional radiology (IR) is a rapidly expanding specialty within medicine. As a result, a new population of patients has emerged in Ireland; those discharged home with an IR drain for curative or preventative purposes requiring the care of nurses working in the community setting. The purpose of this study is to describe the experiences of nurses in the community caring for patients with an IR drain, with the objective of assisting in developing a new body of knowledge to enhance a patient's journey as they transition from an IR department to the community. The study is based on individual interviews analyzed using Colaizzi seven-step framework. Three themes emerged from the data findings: knowledge gap, information gap, and educational gap, whereby license professionals require additional education and training to care for this patient population. The study findings concluded that nurses in the community are unprepared to care for this patient cohort because of a knowledge deficit, inaccurate and poorly written discharge summaries, and a lack of education and training among nurses and patients regarding the intervention performed.