Transitional care of older ethnic minority patients: An integrative review

Abstract

AimsTo critically synthesize the empirical literature on practice in transitional care and how to meet the care needs of older ethnic minority populations who discharged from hospital to community.DesignAn integrative literature review integrating empirical studies using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta‐Analyses guidelines.Data SourcesPubMed, Web of Science, PsycINFO, EBSCO (including CINAHL and MEDLINE) and Scopus were searched for papers published between 2012 and September 2022.Review MethodsFull‐text papers were screened against inclusion and exclusion criteria subsequent to screening titles and abstracts. All included papers were evaluated for methodological quality using the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme Checklists. After extracting findings, themes were created by critically examining and synthesizing of findings.ResultsThe search yielded a total of 1180 studies, 1153 after removing duplicates and 27 papers meeting the inclusion criteria and exclusion criteria were included in the review. The main findings were categorized into four themes: (i) intervention‐related outcomes; (ii) unmet needs of older minority people; (iii) transitional care–related characteristics of older minority people and (iv) challenges for healthcare providers. Findings indicated that the transitional care experience of ethnic minority older populations differed from natives to some extent which revealed unmet needs addressing how to provide culturally appropriate transitional care for this population.ConclusionThis review gave insight into facilitators in the transitional care of ethnic minority older adults. Future transitional care interventions should incorporate needs of ethnic minority population.ImpactThis review highlighted the defined gaps between existing transitional care programmes and transitional care needs of older ethnic minority. Increasing follow‐up completion, evidence defining deeply of ethnic phenomenon in the transitional care process, developing interventions that meet transitional care needs and increasing healthcare providers' cultural competency were featured headlines.No Patient or Public Contribution.

‘Hearing silences’: Exploring culturally safe transitional care: A qualitative study among Turkish‐speaking migrant frail older adults

“…Taking part in informed decision-making, which is required to educate and train caregivers about older patients' medical conditions, symptom management, management of cognitive difficulties and access to community-based services, ensures that older people' care needs are met (Allen et al, 2023;Kraun et al, 2022). Older patients often experienced limited communication with healthcare staff, which is closely related to high rates of readmission (Dolu et al, 2023). Although it is already known that older ethnic minority patients tend to experience poor communication with healthcare staff due to their limited language proficiency (Dolu et al, 2023), there is still a lack of information available in relevant languages for ethnically and linguistically diverse population (Allen et al, 2023).…”

“…Furthermore, the role of interpreters and their positive effect on health outcomes (Leung & Ku, 2023) is recognized, but is still often difficult due to a shortage of skilled interpreters. To enhance the care continuum and promote rehabilitation at home, it is essential to maintain communication between healthcare staff, older adults and their family caregivers (Joo & Liu, 2023).In addition, by considering the beliefs and understanding of health that ethnic minority older patients may have due to their cultural and religious backgrounds, appropriate care can be planned and delivered (Dolu et al, 2023).…”

“…Older patients often experienced limited communication with healthcare staff, which is closely related to high rates of readmission (Dolu et al, 2023). Although it is already known that older ethnic minority patients tend to experience poor communication with healthcare staff due to their limited language proficiency (Dolu et al, 2023), there is still a lack of information available in relevant languages for ethnically and linguistically diverse population (Allen et al, 2023). Furthermore, the role of interpreters and their positive effect on health outcomes (Leung & Ku, 2023) is recognized, but is still often difficult due to a shortage of skilled interpreters.…”

“…To enhance the care continuum and promote rehabilitation at home, it is essential to maintain communication between healthcare staff, older adults and their family caregivers (Joo & Liu, 2023). In addition, by considering the beliefs and understanding of health that ethnic minority older patients may have due to their cultural and religious backgrounds, appropriate care can be planned and delivered (Dolu et al, 2023). It was also shown in our study that the support of informal caregivers, such as spouses, family, friends and neighbours, who provide unpaid support to an older adult during a care transition period (Allen et al, 2023), is one of the main facilitators of transitional care (Joo & Liu, 2023).…”

“…Demographic data included participants' age, gender, educational status, person living with older patient at home, older patient's latest length of hospital stay, family caregiver's relationship with older patient and family caregiver's duration of experience on caring. To develop a semi‐structured interview guide, an integrative literature review of existing empirical studies exploring ethnic minority older adults, focusing on their experiences and unmet needs, was conducted as the first step (Dolu et al, 2023) ( TSF Stage 1: ‘Working in Silences’ , Figure 1). Following that, existing Turkish community support groups were identified, and contacted and five Turkish community volunteers were recruited as members of the advisory group.…”