Listening to caregivers: towards new quality indicators for family and community nursing care
A qualitative study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54103/dn/30109Keywords:
Family or Community Nurse, Territorial care, Quality indicators, Nursing care, Chronic conditionsAbstract
BACKGROUND: The growing burden of chronic conditions and dependency has strengthened the role of the Family and Community Nurse (FCN) in primary healthcare. However, validated quality indicators reflecting caregivers’ perspectives remain limited.
OBJECTIVE: To explore family caregivers’ experiences in order to identify preliminary domains that may inform the future development of quality indicators for Family and Community Nursing care.
METHODS: A descriptive phenomenological qualitative study was conducted. Ten family caregivers of patients receiving care from a Family and Community Nurse in a district of central Italy participated in semi-structured interviews. Convenience sampling was adopted until data saturation was achieved. Data were analysed using Colaizzi’s method.
RESULTS: Caregivers identified several domains perceived as essential for high-quality nursing care, including accessibility and responsiveness, psychological support, communication and technical competence, integrated multidisciplinary care, therapeutic education, and self-care empowerment. Participants highlighted the FCN’s contribution to care coordination, emotional support, health education, and increased confidence in managing chronic conditions.
CONCLUSIONS: Caregivers’ experiences allowed the identification of preliminary domains that may support the future development of quality indicators for Family and Community Nursing, providing useful evidence to guide service evaluation, quality improvement, and future research.
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Corresponding author:
Elisa Mantovani: elisa.mantovani01@gmail.com
Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria delle Marche Via
Conca 71 60126, Ancona (AN) ITALY
Dissertation Nursing V.5, N.2, (31/07/2026)
Submission received:10/11/2025
End of Peer Review process: 28/07/2026
Accepted: 30/07/2026
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
Journal Homepage: https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/dissertationnursing
DISSERTATION NURSING®
ISSN: 2785-7263 DOI: 10.54103/dn/30109
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Copyright (c) 2026 Elisa Mantovani, Patrizia D'Incecco, Mara Marchetti
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Accepted 2026-07-30
Published 2026-07-31
