Home-Based Nursing: International Scope & Standards of Practice

Introduction. The International Home Care Nurses Organization (IHCNO; www.ihcno.org) and the American Nurses Association (ANA) have conducted a research study to give nurses who provide care for persons in their homes a voice in developing the new Home-Based Nursing: International Scope and Standards of Practice.

This project has reached a new phase. After using various methods to connect and contact home-based nurses around the world we have collected data from nurses from about 40 countries, which includes all the 6 WHO geographic regions of the world. Our participants also came from many different types of home-based nursing (HBN) models, which address the needs of different populations of patients throughout their life cycles.

We used 4 surveys to collect data about the status and scope of HBN in the participants’ countries and their opinions and vision of what the standards and competencies should be for high-quality HBN into the future. All the surveys have been completed, and the researchers are now in the process of analyzing the data, which will be used by a Task Force to actually develop the standards. The IHCNO is actually enhancing the quality of HBN around the world with this project!

Thank you to all who contributed to this important project