Abstract
BackgroundNursing home residents are mainly inactive. Nursing staff can encourage residents to perform functional activities during daily care activities. This study examines 1) the extent to which nursing staff perceive that they encourage functional activity in nursing home residents and 2) the associations between these nursing behaviors and professional characteristics, contextual factors, and information-seeking behaviors.MethodsIn this cross-sectional study, 368 registered nurses and certified nurse assistants, working in somatic and psychogeriatric wards of forty-one nursing homes throughout the Netherlands participated. Self-reported data were collected with a questionnaire, comprising the MAINtAIN-behaviors, which assesses the extent to which nursing staff encourage functional activities, including different activities of daily living (ADL), household activities, and miscellaneous encouraging activities (e.g., discouraging informal caregivers from taking over activities residents can do themselves). Additional data collected included professional characteristics (e.g., age), contextual factors (e.g., ward type), and information-seeking behaviors (e.g., reading professional journals). Descriptive statistics were used to determine the extent to which functional activities were encouraged. Hierarchical linear regression analyses were performed to determine the associations between the encouragement of functional activities and other factors.ResultsNursing staff perceived that household activities (mean 4.1 (scale range 1–9), SD 1.9) were less often encouraged than ADL (mean 6.9, SD 1.2) or miscellaneous activities (mean 6.7, SD 1.5). The percentage of nursing staff stating that different household activities, ADL, or miscellaneous activities were almost always encouraged ranged from 11 to 45%, 41 to 86%, and 50 to 83% per activity, respectively. The extent to which these activities were encouraged differed for some of the professional characteristics, contextual factors, or information-seeking behaviors, but no consistent pattern in associations emerged.ConclusionsAccording to nursing staff, household activities are not as often encouraged as ADL or miscellaneous activities. Professional characteristics, contextual factors, and information-seeking behaviors are not consistently associated with the encouragement of functional activity. Nursing staff should also focus on improving the encouragement of household activities. Future research could examine the role of other factors in encouraging functional activity, such as experienced barriers, and assess to what extent the perception of nursing staff corresponds with their actual behavior.
Highlights
In the Netherlands, the Health Care Inspectorate emphasizes that nursing homes need to provide care that stimulates activity among residents, encouraging them to be active and perform functional activities on their own, instead of nursing staff taking over activities [5]
Context: Nursing homes in the Netherlands In nursing homes in the Netherlands, a distinction is made between residents with chronic physical problems, who live in somatic wards, and residents with psychogeriatric problems, such as dementia, who live in psychogeriatric wards [16]
The 368 eligible respondents represented 41 nursing homes; 275 (75%) of them were Certified nurse assistant (CNA) and 231 (63%) worked in a psychogeriatric ward
Summary
Nursing staff can encourage residents to perform functional activities during daily care activities. Research shows that being active and performing functional activities is associated with less anxiety [1], less disruptive behavior [1], higher self-esteem [2], and a higher quality of life [3] in nursing home residents. In the Netherlands, the Health Care Inspectorate emphasizes that nursing homes need to provide care that stimulates activity among residents, encouraging them to be active and perform functional activities on their own, instead of nursing staff taking over activities [5]. In the past, nursing homes were mainly organized according to a medical model [6], in which nursing staff focused on taking care of the physical needs of residents. Nursing staff may be able to play a more substantial role in encouraging functional activities [10]
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