Conducting Assessments to Determine Resident and Provider Needs

Assessments are an important tool for long-term care (LTC) providers. Assessments of LTC resident needs and preferences can help to identify gaps in care or health and quality of life considerations that have gone unaddressed by care providers. Additionally, assessments of LTC staff and health care providers can be used to provide information about work satisfaction, performance limitations, or educational needs that are not currently being filled.

The articles in this month’s issue of Annals of Long-Term Care: Clinical Care and Aging^® demonstrate the value of conducting such assessments. Kimberly Van Haitsma, PhD, et al draw attention to the increasing emphasis on person-centered care approaches in nursing homes. Such approaches involve “knowing the person” and honoring the needs and preferences of each individual nursing home resident. As LTC providers shift toward person-centered models of care, they require tools to help them gauge whether they are meeting the preferences of their residents and to identify any areas in need of improvement.

One such tool, developed by Van Haitsma’s team, is the Preference Match Tracker. This new tool measures alignment between nursing home resident preferences for recreational activities and their actual participation in these preferred activities. The system allows care providers to document and track individual recreation preferences and activities and then produce practical, graphic reports about these preferences. Additionally, activities that are cited by a nursing home resident as being preferred, but that the resident is unable to do independently, can be identified so that care providers can support the resident in engaging in these activities. Van Haitsma and coauthors report the outcomes of a pilot test of the Preference Match Tracker system to enhance the quality of care and quality of life for nursing home residents.

Providing appropriate care to residents in long-term care facilities requires familiarity with best practices of the facility as well as those recommended by national guidelines. One example of such best practices is those for infection control, such as when caring for residents with Clostridium difficile infection (CDI). It is important for LTC facilities to regularly monitor the familiarity of health care providers with the appropriate practices to ensure residents are receiving the best possible care, as well as to reduce the risk of infection among other residents.

Pragnesh Patel, MD, and coauthors distributed a self-administered questionnaire at five LTC facilities to assess health care provider knowledge about CDI. The survey also inquired about compliance with the 2010 SHEA/IDSA guidelines for CDI prevention as well as LTC facility-specific standard infection control practices. The findings of the survey can be used to develop robust educational programs for health care providers at LTC facilities about CDI. The survey approach taken by Patel and colleagues serves as a model for other researchers to use when evaluating compliance with best practices among health care providers.

Assessments of LTC residents and health care providers in LTC facilities can provide important information about gaps in care. Such information can then be used towards achieving the overall goal of improving the quality of care provided to LTC residents.

Also in this issue, William B Greenough III, MD, FACP, and colleagues report the use of oral rehydration therapy to treat dehydration and diarrhea in older adults, and Joshua D Clapp, PhD, discusses the diagnosis and treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder in older adults.

As always, we welcome your feedback on the articles in this and other issues of Annals of Long Term Care: Clinical Care and Aging^®. Please email your comments and questions to our managing editor, Kara Rosania, at krosania@hmpcommunications.com.

Thank you for reading!