Early completion of the discharge risk screen by nurses in acute care wards.

The aim of this study was to investigate nurses' compliance with discharge risk screening (DRS) policy, the accuracy of this screening, and factors associated with its completion. An audit of 99 acute care patients' medical records revealed that compliance with DRS completion was very low (24%), although accuracy was high, and the 2 factors associated with completion of the DRS were patient diagnosis and day of week admitted. Further research on nurses' attitudes, beliefs, and perceived barriers to DRS is needed as a foundation to increase the use of the tool.