Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine usual long-term care (LTC) practices related to 3 aspects of morning care and determine if there were resident characteristics related to the lack of care. Design and Methods: Participants were 169 long-stay residents in 4 community LTC facilities who required staff assistance with either transfer…

This study explored how direct care workers in nursing homes conceptualize good care and how their conceptualizations are influenced by external factors surrounding their work environment and the relational dynamics between them and residents. Study participants were drawn from a local service employees' union, and in-depth interviews were…

Purpose: Motivating and enabling formal caregivers to provide individualized resident care has become an increasingly important objective in long-term care (LTC) facilities. The current study set out to examine the structure of responses to the individualized care inventory (ICI). Design and Methods: Samples of 242 registered nurses (RNs)/licensed…

Better Jobs Better Care was the nation's largest single initiative created to reduce the high vacancy and turnover rates of direct care workers and improve workforce quality through both policy and practice changes. In this article, we describe the important role and key characteristics of direct care workers, what motivated the unique partnership…

Purpose: Better Jobs Better Care (BJBC) was a long-term care workforce demonstration that sought to improve recruitment and retention of direct care workers by changing public policy and management practice. The purpose of this article is to document and assess BJBC's implementation, analyze factors affecting implementation, and draw lessons from…

Purpose: This study examined issues related to using older workers in frontline jobs in long-term care from employers' and prospective employees' perspectives. Design and Methods: Telephone surveys were conducted with employers representing 615 nursing homes and 410 home health agencies, and 1,091 low-income participants aged 40+ in Operation ABLE…

Studies community services in long-term care used by older minority adults and concludes that the extent to which minority older persons are receiving a proportionate share of services is not consistent across targeted minority populations. The strongest predictors of older minority persons served are staffing patterns and location. (Author)

Interpreted results of needs assessment completed by active caregivers (n=58) and former caregivers (n=57) of relatives with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Results imply need for high-quality educational material throughout caregiving, improved training for health professionals about AD, and role for former caregivers as information resources.…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe factors contributing to the decision-making processes of elderly persons as they formulate advance directives in long-term care. Design and Methods: This study was qualitative, based on grounded theory. Recruitment was purposive and continued until saturation was reached. Nine residents of a…

Purpose: This article examines factors within the long-term-care work environment that impact the effectiveness of continuing education. Design & Methods: In Study 1, focus group interviews were conducted with staff and management from urban and rural long-term-care facilities in southwestern Ontario to identify their perceptions of the…

Purpose: Making good consumer decisions requires having good information. This study compared long-term-care recommendations among various types of health professionals. Design and Methods: We gave randomly varied scenarios to a convenience national sample of 211 professionals from varying disciplines and work locations. For each scenario, we…

Surveyed perceptions of the causes, severity, and treatment of elderly substance abuse as reported by 30 drug-abuse, health care, and social service practitioners. Perceptions differed as a function of both the basic type of services an agency provided and its specific response to older abusers. (Author)

Examines social factors that lead to the development of learned helplessness in elderly persons in the health care setting, including stereotyping elderly by health care professionals, effects of unequal interpersonal exchange, and behaviors associated with sick and healer roles. Discusses programatic and educational prophylaxis and solutions to…