Evaluated efficacy of four state nursing home preadmission screening instruments. Data from three community-based services demonstration experiments indicated that more restrictive screens tended to have lower sensitivity but higher specificity and to generate higher proportion of false negative decisions than more liberal screens. Overall rates…

Examined extent to which nursing homes adjust staffing and care practices relative to local market conditions. Results suggest that facilities employ more nonprofessional nursing staff in markets in which professional nurse wages are higher. Registered nurse staffing levels are higher in markets with higher percentage of self-pay nursing home…

Purpose: The aim of this study was to estimate the longitudinal relationship between transitions in the use of long-term care and older adults' depressive symptoms and to investigate whether this relationship could be explained by markers of older adults' underlying health, or other variables including demographics, personality, and partner…

Nursing homes as clinical sites for student learning have the potential to produce negative attitudes toward aging. The purpose of the study reported in this paper was to determine the impact of the Eden Alternative on the attitudes of students toward elders residing in nursing homes. Prior to beginning implementation of the Eden Alternative, 61…

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…

Purpose: We examined the effects of facility and market-level characteristics on staffing levels and turnover rates for direct care staff, and we examined the effect of staff turnover on staffing levels. Design and Methods: We analyzed cross-sectional data from 1,014 Texas nursing homes. Data were from the 2002 Texas Nursing Facility Medicaid Cost…

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships of diagnosis and treatment of depression with anhedonic and dysphoric symptom presentation, using the Minimum Data Set 2.0. Participants were from two sectors of longterm care: 70 nursing home residents and 92 residents in a Veterans' Care Service. The samples differed in their sex…

A research and intervention project to enhance cultural competence (CC) within nursing home staff is described, with particular emphasis on the qualitative findings generated during baseline assessments of 10 participating facilities. These findings, developed from an analysis of transcripts of 56 focus groups, suggest the importance of five CC…

Purpose: The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has adopted two functional assessment systems that guide care planning: one for nursing home residents (the Resident Assessment Instrument [RAI]) and a compatible one for home care clients (RAI-HC). The purpose of this article is to describe the RAI-HC (often referred to as the Minimum Data Set-Home…

Purpose: In an attempt to more thoroughly describe aggressive behavior in nursing home residents with dementia, we examined background and proximal factors as guided by the Need-Driven Dementia-Compromised Behavior model. Design and Methods: We used a multivariate cross-sectional survey with repeated measures; participants resided in nine randomly…

Nursing home regulatory agencies are subjected to a variety of pressures. Nursing home residents' families and friends want the agencies to "get tough" while the nursing home industry wants agencies to act as consultants rather than cops. The task of regulating nursing homes in the United States is primarily carried out by units of state…

Study supported under Grant 01624-03, National Institute of Mental Health.

This study demonstrates that the actual percentage of persons dying in nursing homes and extended care facilities far exceeds the commonly held five percent. (Author)

Conducted descriptive analysis of 31 private long-term care insurance policies. Examined policies for premium rates, extent and levels of coverage, restrictions of eligibility to purchase a policy, and indemnity payment levels. Findings suggest that policies are expensive, impose numerous restrictions, offer limited coverage for certain services,…

Focuses on the effect of the Community Long Term Care project on nursing home utilization. Over an 18-month period of participation, experimental group clients experienced significantly fewer admissions and a 38 percent reduction in nursing home use. (Author/BL)