Hospital organizational structure factors related to discharge planning activities for alcoholics by nurses in Japan

Aim Nurses play a significant role in providing discharge support for alcoholics. We aimed to explore the organizational structures of hospitals that are related to effective discharge planning activities provided by nurses. Methods We conducted a cross‐sectional survey of Japanese hospitals with psychiatric wards that accept alcoholics. The survey questionnaire was administered to one nurse per hospital from August to September 2019. The Discharge Planning Scale for Ward Nurses (DPWN) was used to assess the actual status of the hospital nurse teams' discharge planning activities. The DPWN consists of four subscales: subscale I, “collect information from patients and their families”; subscale II, “supports for decision‐making for the patients and families”; subscale III, “utilization of social resources”; and subscale IV, “discharge guidance by cooperating with community support teams and multidisciplinary teams.” Results From the valid responses of 116 hospitals, scores on subscale IV were significantly lower than scores on subscales I, II, and III, indicating that medical care guidance through multidisciplinary collaboration between hospitals and the community was inadequate. In addition, multiple regression analysis showed that “hospital management and administrators understanding about nurses' discharge support activities,” and “planning discharge schedules, such as using clinical paths” were significantly and independently related to the total DPWN and each of subscale scores, regardless of the hospital's establishment body and size. “Multidisciplinary discharge support” was significantly related to subscale II. Conclusions These findings have implications for the management of discharge planning activities provided by nurses for alcoholics through multidisciplinary collaboration.