Gerontological Nursing Interventions Research Center (GNIRC)

Title: Nursing Home Resident Risk for Poor Quality Care Tool

Principal Investigator: Sara Campbell, PhD, RN

Study Site: Illinois State University

Abstract

Quality of care in nursing homes is of paramount concern as numbers of persons residing in long-term care continue to rise along with a nursing staff shortage. There is a profound absence of knowledge about the concept of attractiveness as it relates to characteristics of nursing home residents. If residents at risk for poor quality of care can be identified through components of attractiveness, a systems intervention can be designed to improve nursing staff perceptions of attractiveness, quality of care, and subsequently, resident outcomes. Specific Aims: 1) further identify and describe attractiveness characteristics of residents perceived by nursing staff that place residents at risk for poor quality of care, 2) develop an instrument designed to identify nursing staff perceptions of attractiveness characteristics of residents that place residents at risk for poor quality of care, and 3) pretest new instrument for reliability and validity. A four-phase research design includes a first phase to develop an exploratory set of questions based on the Conceptual Model of Attractiveness (Campbell, in press, July, 2005) and will seek to further draw out traits and behaviors/characteristics of residents that attract or ‘repel’ nursing staff. Phases two and three; blueprint and item pool construction, content validity measures, and item review. Phase four; instrument evaluation. Future plans include development and testing of an organizational systems intervention to reduce the risk of residents for poor quality care and improve quality outcomes. This study is supported through a collaborative relationship between the researcher, located at Illinois State University, and Dr. Meridean Maas, at The University of Iowa