Perceived barriers and enablers to conducting nursing assessments in residential aged care facilities in Victoria, Australia

Abstract

Objective: Nurses working in aged care facilities need to be adequately prepared to manage the increasingly complex care needs of older people. This paper reports on the views of nurses on the barriers and enablers to conducting nursing assessments with older people in residential aged care, six weeks after attending a four day education and training workshop on this topic. Design: Descriptive evaluation. Setting: Data were collected in a range of venues in which the education was delivered. Subjects: Registered (RNs) and enrolled (ENs) nurses (n= 345) working in residential aged care facilities in Victoria, Australia. Findings: Fourteen barriers and eight enablers, which affect the capacity of nurses to conduct assessments with older people, were identified. The most common cited barriers included lack of time (78%), residents’ poor state of health (41%) and the absence of equipment (33%). Common enablers were organisational support (38%); staff education and training (29%); having the appropriate equipment (22%); positive staff attitudes (17%) and the resident’s condition and cooperation (16%). Conclusion: Nursing assessments are vital to the delivery of quality and evidence based aged care. The issues identified provide aged care services and managers with a basis for ensuring that nurses have the necessary preparation, training and ongoing support to perform the appropriate and required assessments to provide the best possible care.