A quasi-experimental study was performed to investigate the effects of a home visiting discharge education program on the maternal self-esteem, attachment, postpartum depression and family function in 35 mothers of neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) infants.

Twenty-three mothers in the intervention group received the home visiting discharge education while 12 mothers in the control group received the routine, hospital discharge education. Baseline data was collected in both groups one day after delivery. The intervention group received the home visiting discharge education while the control group did the routine hospital-based discharge education. The questionnaire including the data on maternal self-esteem, attachment, postpartum depression and family function were collected within 1week after the discharge by mail.

The scores of maternal self-esteem, and attachment were significantly increased, and the postpartum depression and the family function score were decreased after the home visiting discharge education in intervention group. There were no changes in these variables before and after the routine hospital-based discharge education in control group.

These results support the beneficial effects of home visiting discharge education on the maternal role adaptation and family function of the mothers of NICU infants.

The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate a transitional care program for patients discharged from military hospitals. The study consists of two phases: developing the program and evaluating its effectiveness.

The conceptual framework used to guide the development of the program was Meleis's transition theory. A quasi-experimental design was employed for this study. Participants were recruited from patients discharged from one military hospital, 72 in the control group and 56 in the experiment group. Data were analyzed using SPSS WIN 12.0 program with chi-square, Fisher's exact test, independent t-test, and mixed model.

Participants in the transitional care program reported promoting a positive personal condition, and more healthy patterns of response in the first week after being discharged and a smoother discharge transition.

The transitional care program developed for discharge patients from military hospital promoted discharge readiness and promoted smooth discharge transition.