New from PHI’s National Clearinghouse
The newest additions to the PHI National Clearinghouse on the Direct Care Workforce:
The June 2015 issue of The Gerontologist featured several articles related to direct-care workers, including:
Consistent Assignment of Nursing Staff to Residents in Nursing Homes: A Critical Review of Conceptual and Methodological Issues — This report analyzes existing research on the implementation and effectiveness of consistent assignment in nursing homes. The authors note that consistent assignment is usually cited as a way to improve consumer care outcomes. In their analysis, they found that the meaning of “consistent assignment” varied from facility to facility, and that many previous evaluations of its effectiveness were flawed. They conclude that a more consistent “conceptual understanding” of consistent assignment should be developed.
The Impact of Assistive Technologies on Formal and Informal Home Care — This survey interprets data from the 2004 National Long-Term Care Survey to determine whether the use of assistive home care technologies — including technologies for indoor/outdoor mobility, bed transfer, and bathing — are an effective substitute for care provided by paid or family caregivers. The researchers concluded that some technologies were able to reduce informal caregivers’ burden, but the amount of paid care remained consistent despite the use of assistive technology.
The Role of Organizational Culture in Retaining Nursing Workforce — This study examines how different types of nursing home organizational cultures can affect turnover rates of registered nurses, licensed practices nurses, and nursing aide staff. The researchers broke down organizational cultures into four different types: group cultures, developmental cultures, market cultures, and hierarchical cultures. They found that facilities that espouse market values (in which strict performance standards are emphasized) tend to have higher aide turnover. But on the whole, they observed that a facility’s culture had little predictive value over voluntary aide turnover.
Additionally, the website of the journal Geriatric Nursing posted the following survey to its website on June 9:
Perceived Barriers to Infection Prevention and Control for Nursing Home Certified Nursing Assistants: A Qualitative Study — This survey uses data gathered from interviews with more than 70 nursing home staff members — including administrators, nurses, and certified nursing assistants (CNAs) — to articulate the barriers CNAs experience in effectively implementing and maintaining infection control practices. The researchers found that CNAs experience five main barriers: language and culture differences; inadequate knowledge and training; understaffing, which leads to time constrains; insufficient accountability; and infrequent work schedules, which prevent care continuity.
The PHI National Clearinghouse on the Direct Care Workforce is a national online library for people in search of solutions to the direct-care staffing crisis in long-term care. It houses over 1,000 articles, reports, issue briefs, and fact sheets on the direct-care workforce.
— by Matthew Ozga
