Community Nursing Support for Clients with Schizophrenia

A true experimental, posttest only, control group design was used to pilot test the effectiveness of a telephone nursing intervention in increasing community survival, and decreasing the number and length of rehospitalizations for persons with schizophrenia. The vulnerability model was used as a framework for the study. The intervention was hypothesized to function as a moderating factor to reduce the effects of stress on vulnerable persons with schizophrenia. Experimental subjects received telephone nursing intervention weekly for 3 months; control subjects received informational calls at weeks 6 and 12. Readmission rates were 13% (n = 2) for experimental subjects and 23% (n = 5) for controls. Compared with controls, experimental subjects experienced a 4% increase in community survival and a 27% reduction in length of stay if readmission occurred. These preliminary data suggest that telephone intervention can increase community survival in persons with schizophrenia. Future studies should focus on increasing sample size and refining the intervention.