District nurses' experiences with a caseload profiling tool: a service evaluation

Abstract

Caseload profiling is being advocated as a method to measure, manage and evidence increasingly complex caseloads in district nursing. However, there is no qualitative work on district nurses' experiences of applying caseload profiling to their caseloads. The aim of the service evaluation presented in this paper was to explore a working group's experiences of implementing a caseload-profiling tool to caseloads in district nursing in one community setting. As part of the service evaluation, three semi-structured interviews were conducted during meetings of the working group. Following data collection, thematic analysis supported the identification of three themes: barriers, facilitators and significance of data collected from caseload profiling. Subthemes were identified and compared with available literature and policy to enable new insights from practitioners to be gained. The service evaluation concluded that caseload profiling is a simple process that yields rich, complex data, with the data generated from the caseload profiles providing a method to evidence the complexity of district nursing caseloads and information to support proactive caseload management and identification of service delivery priorities.