Hospitalization of nursing home residents can be futile as well as costly, and now evidence indicates that treating nursing home residents in place produces better outcomes for some conditions. We examined facility organizational characteristics that previous research showed are associated with potentially avoidable hospital transfers and with…

Purpose: Although surveys are usually piloted before fielding, cognitive-based testing of surveys is not standard practice in nursing home (NH) research. Many terms used in the literature do not have standard definitions and may be interpreted differently by researchers, respondents, and policy makers. The purpose of this study was to ensure that…

Context: Most nursing home care is provided by certified nursing assistants (CNAs), but little is known about rural CNAs. Purpose: To develop a representative geographic profile of the CNA workforce, focusing on paths leading to present job. Methods: Cross-sectional analysis of data from the 2004 National Nursing Assistant Survey (NNAS), a…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe how the prevalence of nurse aide training and competency evaluation programs (NATCEPs) provided in the nursing home (NH) setting changed between 1997 and 2007, to explore the environmental factors that may be influencing the prevalence of these programs, and to examine how the changing prevalence…

Purpose: This article describes a distance learning model designed to help nursing homes implement incontinence management best practices. A basic premise is that translating research into practice requires both a feasible intervention and a dissemination strategy responsive to the target audience's needs. Design and Methods: Over 8 months, nurse…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the associations between nursing home administrator (NHA) leadership style and staff turnover. Design and Methods: We analyzed primary data from a survey of 2,900 NHAs conducted in 2005. The Online Survey Certification and Reporting database and the Area Resource File were utilized to extract…

Purpose: We compared the rates of specialized care for residents with Alzheimer's disease or dementia in special care units (SCUs) and other nursing home (NH) units and examined the associations of SCU residence with process of care and resident outcomes. Design and Methods: Data came from the 2004 National Nursing Home Survey. The indicators of…

Purpose: Emphasis on consumer-centered care for frail and institutionalized older adults has increased the development and adaptation of surveys for this population. Conventional methods used to pretest survey items fail to investigate underlying sources of measurement error. However, the use of the cognitive interview (CI), a method for studying…

This study used both survey and interview questionnaires. It was designed to assess the feasibility, usability, and utility of two point-of-care tools especially prepared with information relevant for dementia care by staff nurses in a small, a medium-sized, and a large nursing home in Florida. Twenty-five LPN or RN nurses were recruited for the…

This research explores the workplace stress and ethical challenges reported by healthcare staff in a nursing home. A brief self-report survey was administered to 44 members of the nursing staff in a not-for-profit nursing home. The survey included items that elicited identification of specific workplace stressors and ethical challenges and global…

Context: Scope of practice is an important factor in both training and recruiting rural family physicians. Purpose: To assess rural Idaho family physicians' scope of practice and to examine variations in scope of practice across variables such as gender, age and employment status. Methods: A survey instrument was developed based on a literature…

Medical care in nursing homes is not provided by board-licensed geriatricians; it mainly comes from physicians in need of educational programs in the field of geriatrics. Such programs, based on curriculum guidelines, should be developed. The purpose of this study was to seek input from nursing home physicians on their perceived needs for training…

Virginia Commonwealth University developed an enhanced medical student geriattic curriculum that includes required home visits and nursing home visits for second year students (180 per year), an annual Forum on Aging for all first and second year students, and small group exercises. We added 30 hours of basic science material to pre-clinical…

This study examined how the mental health needs of nursing home (NH) residents with serious mental illness (SMI) are addressed. Data were collected from three sources: interviews with 84 SMI stakeholders; surveys of 206 NH staff members; and focus groups at two psychiatry specialty NHs. Four common themes emerged: placement of older adults with…

Staff carers in pediatric skilled nursing facilities (PSNF) deal directly with dying residents, and are on the forefront of communication with families. These providers have expressed misunderstandings regarding the meaning of resuscitation status and redirection of care. This descriptive study evaluated perceptions and understanding of end of…