Readiness for discharge in parents of hospitalized children.

Parental preparation for a child's discharge from the hospital sets the stage for successful transitioning to care and recovery at home. In this study of 135 parents of hospitalized children, the quality of discharge teaching, particularly the nurses' skills in "delivery" of parent teaching, was associated with increased parental readiness for discharge, which was associated with less coping difficulty during the first 3 weeks postdischarge. Parental coping difficulty was predictive of greater utilization of posthospitalization health services. These results validate the role of the skilled nurse as a teacher in promoting positive outcomes at discharge and beyond the hospitalization.