[Home care of children with chronic diseases: cooperation between hospital and home care workers].

Newborns with chronic problems needing continuous and special care even after discharge are not very frequent but represent a challenge for the caring team. The discharge program of the Neonatal Care ward of Trento hospital includes several steps: discharge meetings of teh neonatologist and the nurse responsible for the child, the head nurse, the psychologist and, when possible, the social worker; a training program for the parents; the coordination of communications and interventions of the home-care nurses and a detailed post-discharge planning. From 1995 a home-hospital program, as an alternative to the hospital admission was started. To describe how the team functions and stress the need of a close integration among the team members, the case of Ahmed is presented. This case faced the team with several challenges, because of the lack of parent's knowledge of the italian language and of the severity of the child's problems. Every care plan is developed building on newborn's needs and patients' resources. Data on the patients-problems dealt with from 1991 to 1995 and the interventions and resources needed are presented.