Table 1.

Relationships of Donabedian's Quality Model and Meleis' Transitions Theory to Study Variables and Measures

Meleis' Transitions Theory
Nature of Transition	Transition Conditions	Nursing Therapeutics		Patterns of Response
		Donabedian's Quality Model
		Structure	Process		Outcome
Patient-level control variables	Patient-level control variables	Nurse staffing	Quality of discharge teaching	Readiness for hospital discharge	Postdischarge utilization
Measures
Type of admission	Age	RN non-OT HPPD	Quality of discharge teaching scale	Readiness for hospital discharge scale	Readmission
MDC	Sex	RN OT HPPD			ED visits
Severity of illness	Race	Non-RN non-OT HPPD
Length of stay	Socioeconomic status	Non-RN OT HPPD
	Living alone
	Prior hospitalization	Unit-level controls
	Transition coordination	RN vacancy
	Discharge content needed	Patient turnover
Costs
		RN nonovertime and overtime salaries			ED and readmission costs and net revenue/loss

ED, emergency department; HPPD, hours-per-patient-day; MDC, major diagnostic category; OT, overtime; RN, registered nurse.