Effects of resident‐oriented care on quality of care, wellbeing and satisfaction with care

In a resident‐oriented care model applied in nursing homes, the residents are assigned to primary nurses. These primary nurses are responsible for the total care of the residents assigned to them. The purpose of the present study, using a pretest, post‐test and control group quasi‐experimental design, was to evaluate the effects of the implementation of resident‐oriented care on the following aspects of quality of care: coordination of care, instrumental aspects, expressive aspects, resident wellbeing and satisfaction with care, and family satisfaction with care. The study was carried out on somatic and psycho‐geriatric wards in three nursing homes in the Netherlands. Data were collected by questionnaires, interviews and observations. The results of the study showed that the intervention was partly successful in the experimental group. Some aspects of the resident‐oriented care model were not clearly evident. Moreover, the effects on quality‐of‐care aspects were limited. The results revealed that the ‘coordination of care’ increased on half of the experimental wards. Furthermore, there was an indication that ‘expressive aspects’ changed in favour of the experimental wards. The implementation of resident‐oriented care had no effect on resident wellbeing and satisfaction or on family satisfaction. Finally, the results are discussed in the light of some methodological limitations that often go together with intervention studies in the real world.