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Improving family–staff relationships in assisted living facilities: the views of family
Author(s) -
Bauer Michael,
Nay Rhonda
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal of advanced nursing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.948
H-Index - 155
eISSN - 1365-2648
pISSN - 0309-2402
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2648.2010.05575.x
Subject(s) - nursing , assisted living , constructive , assisted living facility , family member , psychology , work (physics) , qualitative research , medicine , family medicine , sociology , process (computing) , engineering , mechanical engineering , social science , computer science , operating system
bauer m. & nay r. (2011) Improving family–staff relationships in assisted living facilities: the views of family. Journal of Advanced Nursing 67 (6), 1232–1241. Abstract Aims. This article is a report of a study of the key influences on family–staff collaboration in low level residential aged care (assisted living) facilities in Australia as seen by the family carers of residents. Background. Collaboration with the willing family is widely acknowledged to be important in the care of the older person. Previous work in nursing homes has shown that staff‐family relationships are often ambiguous. Relatively little is known about the issue of staff‐family relationships in assisted living facilities. Methods. Using qualitative methodology twelve family carers from five assisted living facilities were interviewed and transcripts analysed thematically. Data were collected in 2006/2007. Results. Four factors important to the establishment and maintenance of collaborative staff–family relationships were identified: comfort, communication, consultation and confidence. Conclusion. Low level care facilities need to create environments that are conducive to the establishment and maintenance of constructive staff‐family relationships. A number of practice considerations for care staff to foster relationship‐centred care with the family in these types of facilities are presented.