Objetives:

To explore the emergency nursing clinical and pharmacological practice at home on patients with chronic health problems.

Methods:

Cross-sectional study, including patients from Malaga District attended by an emergency nurse from January 2012 to March 2016. Main variables were:

cause of assistance according to the International Diseases Classification version 9, care needs according to NANDA diagnosis, medication, type of chronic health problem and referrals. Statistical analysis included descriptive data analysis, Chi-squared and t de Student tests and multivariate logistic regression.

Results:

2,253 patients were attended. 957 (42.5%) patients were attended because of chronic health problems, highlighting a 46.4% because of imbalances and 35.5% sanitary devices problems, among them. The most frequent causes were: high/ low blood pressure (14.94%), no urgent pathology (13.79%), urinary problems (12.53%) and oncologic pain/terminal patient (10.44%). In situ resolution of the emergency nurse at home was 93.5%. The amount of patients who needed medication was 53.7%. The most frequent care needs were: Knowledge deficit, pain and anxiety/fear; and interventions were: Vital signs monitoring, referral to primary care and counselling. Ineffective management of sanitary devices was the care need most frequently associated to assistance causes.

Conclusions:

Advanced practice nurses are highly resolutives and efficient to deal with home emergencies about chronic health problems.

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