Primary Nursing

Reference nursing is an organizational concept of nursing care and describes the assumption of responsibility in patient care within nursing and geriatric nursing in a work shift.

A nurse controls the process from admission to discharge of the patients they care for. An essential component of reference nursing is the working method based on the nursing process. They are responsible for collecting information (nursing assessment), describing problems and resources, the measures derived from this and evaluation; the patient is involved in all steps. In their absence, the reference nurse delegates the nursing measures to other nursing staff according to their planning.

In the context of reference nursing, the patient and their relatives benefit from a fixed contact person who has dealt with their individual situation and planned goals together with them. In this setting, the nursing is given more responsibility and acts independently. In the expansion stage, reference nursing is replaced by primary nursing.

Here, the nurse is the main point of contact and assumes responsibility for the patient's nursing from admission to discharge.