Empowering Patients and Families Across the Continuum of Care: From Early Risk Detection to Integrated Home Healthcare and Hospital-at-Home Models
Abstract
ursing professionals are playing critical roles in the global transition of healthcare paradigms from hospital-centric intervention toward proactive, continuous, and community-embedded care (Markovich et al., 2026). In this issue of The Journal of Nursing Research , we bring together rigorous empirical contributions that illuminate how nurses and nurse practitioners (NPs) are empowering patients and families, promoting early risk detection, and seamlessly bridging clinical excellence with home-and community-based care delivery. Empowering individuals and families to take active roles in self-care and early risk identification is fundamental to sustainable healthcare (Global Self-Care Federation, 2025). Primary prevention and health literacy serve as the first line of defense in community health. Demonstrating this imperative, Lai et al. developed and psychometrically validated the Human Papillomavirus Prevention Health Literacy Scale for College Students in Taiwan . Their work provides a reliable, tailored tool that enables healthcare providers to assess health literacy, target educational gaps, and empower young adults to make informed preventive health decisions regarding HPV vaccination and screening. Beyond primary prevention, empowering self-care requires acknowledging the relational context of health management, especially when dealing with chronic and life-altering conditions. Managing post-stroke recovery, for example, is inherently a journey shared by patients and their family caregivers. Xu et al., 2026 examined the intricate interplay between fear of progression and dyadic self-care among stroke survivors and their spouses. Their findings highlight that psychological burdens heavily influence mutual self-care behaviors, underscoring the necessity for nurse-led family interventions that enhance emotional resilience and collaborative coping in community settings. As care models decentralize, advanced practice nurses, particularly NPs, play a crucial operational and clinical role in driving patient enablement, satisfaction, and safety across acute and transitional settings. In a multi-hospital study, Chen et al., 2026 evaluated perceived satisfaction, quality of care, and patient enablement