Effective Factors on Implementation of Pediatric Home Care Program Amid COVID 19 Pandemic: Facilitators and Barriers

BACKGROUND: Home care service is considered as comprehensive care for children with chronic disease or COVID-19. This study aimed to investigate the factors affecting the implementation of a home care nursing program for such children in 2019–2020. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A descriptive-analytical study was conducted with 198 nurses working in pediatric wards of selective hospitals of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. The data were collected through an author-administered questionnaire with 44 questions. The questionnaire was designed in two parts. Part one involved gathering the demographic data of the participants. Facilitating and barrier factors of the implementation of the care were prioritized and examined in part two by using the Likert scale in both the individual and the organizational domains. The data were analyzed using the mean frequency and paired t test. RESULTS: The mean (SD) score of individual and organizational facilitating factors were 65.65 (16.24) and 65.98 (11.29), respectively, and the mean (SD) score of the organizational barriers was 82.04 (14.36), which was significantly higher than the mean score (SD) of the individual barriers of 57.94 (14.82) (t(197) = 21.32, p < 0.05). The most important individual facilitating factor (53.82%) was “respectful communication with the family,” and the most important organizational facilitator (80.40%) was “Physicians’ support of the nurses.” CONCLUSIONS: Organizational factors were the most significant barriers. Therefore, the findings of this study will help policymakers in the program implementation.