Going home from hospital: the postdischarge experience of patients and carers in rural and remote Queensland.

OBJECTIVE: This paper reports on a study of the experiences of patients and carers discharged from the Townsville General Hospital into rural and remote communities in North Queensland.
DESIGN: The findings presented in this paper are drawn from post-discharge in-depth, qualitative interviews of both patients and carers.
RESULTS: The findings indicate the importance of examining the lived experience of both patients and carers in attempting to understand the impact of current discharge practices.
CONCLUSION: We conclude that carers are providing the bulk of post-discharge care of patients - a difficult role in which the difficulties are exacerbated when the patient or the carer or both is a long way from the home community.