Assessing patients' eligibility for fully funded nursing care.

The introduction of free nursing care in nursing homes requires that patients' needs for care from a registered nurse are determined as part of the assessment of health and social care needs. It is important that patients are assigned to the band of care that is appropriate for them so that they receive the correct contribution to their care. A minimum data set/resident assessment instrument was piloted on residents living in nursing homes as an assessment tool to see whether this agreed with decisions that had been made by the NHS-designated assessor for the registered nursing contribution to care. Comparison of findings showed that the assessment tool was a means of improving the quality of assessments.