Purpose: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality sponsored a nationwide study to evaluate the federal paid feeding assistant (PFA) regulation that allows nursing homes to hire single-task workers to provide feeding assistance to nursing home residents. Organizers designed the PFA regulation…

Purpose: To determine the accuracy of a telephone-screening system to identify persons eligible for home- and community-based long-term care. Design and Methods: Data from Michigan telephone screens were compared to data from in-person assessments using the Minimum Data Set for Home Care (MDS-HC). Weighted kappa statistics measured the level of…

This study aimed to examine the implementation, adequacy, and outcomes of discharge planning. The authors carried out a prospective study of 1,426 adult patients discharged from 11 acute care hospitals in Israel. Social workers provided detailed discharge plans on each patient. Telephone interviews were conducted two weeks post-discharge. Findings…

This study explored the impact of a group-as-a-whole processing group on 11 severely mentally ill adult clients residing in a long term care facility over 30 weeks. Participants were evaluated for the effect of the group on anxiety and depression, using the Beck Depression Index (BDI-II) and the Beck Anxiety Index (BAI). This longitudinal study…

This study examined outcomes for faculty and community partners of a gerontological curriculum enrichment effort at a midwestern state university. The study was supported by the John A. Hartford Foundation. Faculty from three academic centers around the state were involved in revising the foundation (core) curriculum. Community practitioners from…

Two challenges facing nursing-home care today are understanding the concept of "quality of life" as it relates to cognitively impaired residents and finding effective ways to ensure that it is achieved. Canadian director Allan King's documentary, "Memory for Max, Claire, Ida and Company," filmed at Baycrest, captures a method…

Describes the Nursing Home Community Council Project which was developed to improve the quality of resident life through organized community involvement. Reports issues in organizing nursing homes, the group-to-group approach, and providing advocacy in the context of service. (Author/ABB)

Describes program in which nursing home staff (N=20) who were not involved in one-to-one caregiving each befriended one nursing home resident. Found satisfactions included feeling appreciated by resident, seeing their positive impact, having a new social tie, and learning about aging. Found residents benefited from expanded social network,…

We assessed effectiveness of four education programs in providing nursing assistants with ability to produce a therapeutic milieu supportive of intact residents' activities of daily living, positive self-esteem and mood: (1) a combination of Orem's Systems of Nursing Care and Skinner's Applied Behavioral Analysis, (2) Applied Behavioral Analysis,…

Short-term longitudinal study assessed single and combined effects of two interventions designed to affect nursing assistants' (n=193) performance by increasing knowledge and motivation. Four sites included skills training only, job redesign only, both interventions, and control. Significant differences were found in knowledge in comparisons…

This study examined the effectiveness of a new skills training program designed to increase nurse aides' knowledge of behavior management. The training program, designed as five 90-minute group learning modules, was implemented in two Western Pennsylvania nursing homes over a 5-month period. Topics covered within the training program included…

The purpose of the study was to determine the effectiveness of workshops for nursing home nurses that promote cognitive gains and increased positive attitudes toward the elderly and the dying. (Available from University of Texas Press, Box 7819, Austin, TX 78712.) (JOW)

Restorative care attempts to break the cycle of dependency and functional decline in nursing homes by addressing individual resident needs. The Restorative Care Education and Training (RCET) Program consists of a five-week workshop and resource manual for both supervisory and direct care staff. This paper describes the RCET approach and presents…

This study was undertaken to evaluate a training program on understanding Alzheimer's disease for nursing home caregivers of those with the disease. A pretest/posttest design control group methodology was used to evaluate 81 staff members. Results of the study showed that: (1) staff satisfaction with working with mentally impaired and demented…

Studied the effects of monthly psychiatric consultation in a nursing home. Suggested that consultation was primarily useful to staff providing direct care to referred residents. Cited benefits to residents as increased staff awareness and acceptance of emotional problems and increased frequency of therapeutic programs offered at the nursing home.…