Premium
Assessing the quality of environmental design of nursing homes for people with dementia: Development of a new tool
Author(s) -
Fleming Richard,
Bennett Kirsty
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
australasian journal on ageing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.63
H-Index - 34
eISSN - 1741-6612
pISSN - 1440-6381
DOI - 10.1111/ajag.12233
Subject(s) - dementia , audit , reliability (semiconductor) , nursing homes , gerontology , nursing , quality (philosophy) , medicine , psychology , business , accounting , power (physics) , philosophy , physics , disease , epistemology , pathology , quantum mechanics
Objective To develop an environmental audit tool suitable for use across the spectrum of people with dementia. Method The existing E nvironmental A udit T ool was supplemented with items describing the environmental needs of people in the final stages of dementia. Two independent raters assessed 30 aged care homes using this draft tool and the T herapeutic E nvironment S creening S urvey for N ursing H omes ( TESS ‐ NH ). The E nvironmental A udit T ool‐ H igh C are, comprising eight sub‐scales with acceptable levels of internal reliability, was constructed. Validity was assessed against the TESS ‐ NH and the EAT ‐ HC's ability to differentiate units specifically for people with dementia from other residential care units. Results The EAT ‐ HC sub‐scales' inter‐rater reliability ( ICC ) ranged from 0.52 to 0.92. Correlations with the TESS ‐ NH were highly significant. The EAT ‐ HC total score differentiated between dementia‐specific homes and others. Conclusion The EAT ‐ HC can validly and reliably assess environmental features required by a wide range of people with dementia.