The critical role of Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs) to help elderly nursing home residents' move through declining conditions or diseases to death is salient. It is important for CNAs and nursing home leaders to understand CNAs' attitudes, fears, and anxieties toward death and dying. The quantitative study investigated CNA's…

Purpose: Almost half of people age 85 and older who die annually in the United States die as nursing home residents, yet because it is not always clear who is close to death, not all residents who might benefit from end-of-life care receive it. The purpose of this study is to develop a framework for organizing social interactions related to…

Purpose: Previous studies investigating adverse outcomes of hospitalized elders have focused on community-dwelling patients. Given the rapid growth of populations living in other settings, such as assisted living facilities, it is important to understand whether these patients are at higher risk of experiencing specific adverse outcomes during…

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…

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to explore how medical care is delivered to older people in assisted living (AL) settings and to suggest ways for improving it. Design and Methods: We present a review of the limited research available on health care for older AL residents and on building testable models of better ways to organize primary…

Purpose: Assisted living is an increasingly important residential setting for the frail elderly person. How often and why residents leave such facilities are important issues for consumers, for clinicians advising frail patients on their options for living arrangements, and for policymakers. This research investigated the impact of facility and…

Characteristics of nursing homes perceived as effective and efficient by other administrators and persons in state government are compared to characteristics of nursing homes across the nation. Facilities perceived as efficient and effective had more staff, were certified for more levels of care, had more beds, and higher occupancy rates. (Author)

Single-subject reversal designs were used in teaching elderly nursing-home residents to change dependency behavior and to reacquire and maintain self-feeding skills. Fast control of self-feeding was obtained. Results are discussed. (Author)

Purpose: Decisions concerning end-of-life care depend on information contained in advance directives that are documented in residents' charts in the nursing home. The availability of that information depends on the quality of the chart and on the location of the information in the chart. No research was found that compared directives by the manner…

Purpose: This article reviews the effectiveness of a new training program for improving nursing staffs' detection of depression within long-term care facilities. The course was designed to increase recognition of the Minimal Data Set (MDS) Mood Trigger items, to be brief, and to rely on images rather than didactics. Design and Methods: This study…

This monograph, the first in a series of five, provides training information for hospice staff in improving interdisciplinary team functions and humanistic care provisions. Its purpose is to assist hospice directors, educators, and other administrative staff members to understand the focus of the proposed training and its applicability to their…

This monograph, the third in a series of five, provides training information for hospice staff in improving interdisciplinary team functions and humanistic care provisions. Its purpose is to describe the steps in designing a training program for a particular hospice and the activities undertaken between the selection of the trainers and the…

This monograph, the fifth in a series of five, provides training information for hospice staff in improving interdisciplinary team functions and humanistic care provisions. Its purpose is to provide a skilled group trainer with the hospice-specific insights necessary to conduct training in humanistic patient care. Chapter 1 covers training program…

Two hearings held a month apart examine major issues concerning Medicaid benefits in family welfare and nursing home reform. The first set of hearings discusses the proposed Family Welfare Reform Act of 1987 (H.R. 1720), which is intended to replace the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program of the Social Security Act Title IV.…