A continuous period of residential nursing care for a client (patient) given on site 24 hours a day, with a nominated nurse responsible for and available to the clients/patients in circumstances when the responsibility for medical care is provided by the patient’s own GP.
The nurse with overall responsibility for a nursing episode must be identified. If the responsible nurse changes then a new nursing episode begins.
During a nursing episode the patient is either in a nursing home or in one or more wards of a hospital on site. In some circumstances a patient may take home leave which does not interrupt the nursing episode