Nursing Home Care - Research Paper Example

Background of study: The residents of nursing homes would in several occasions be sent to hospitals to undergo diagnostic tests or for acute healthcare services. In the year 2000, Carusone, Loeb and Lohfeld (2006) observed that there were about 46% of Americans older than 65 who would be in these nursing homes before death. This is quite a considerable number of the total population. Most of these long term care facility, LCTF residents would be transferred to hospitals to receive acute medical services and undergo diagnostic tests.

It should be noted that these people usually would be supported in their daily activities including bathing, eating and toileting among others. Improved technology, fiscal pressures and associated services make it complicated for nursing home residents in hospitals. Similarly, the cost of these transfers has proven to be too high. There has thus been an increase concern if hospitalization services could be provided at these nursing homes. Respiratory tract infections have been pointed out by Boise and White (2004) as the leading killer among nursing homes as documented in a Canadian study, the reason why pneumonia has been sampled in this study.

The findings of this research would therefore enable nurses to advise accordingly when families of nursing home residents seek advice on where to have these persons treated. It would also enable provision of services to the satisfaction of the residents of nursing homes and their families. The purpose of this study was to determine whether in situ care among LTCF residents would give the value much sought by the residents and their families. This was achieved by identifying the experience that participants had with pneumonia and what locus of care would be preferred.

The research also sought to find the differences that these participants perceived between hospital-based care and LTCF care and what would be the criteria for good care. Methods of study: In this study, qualitative descriptive study was employed. The participants involved members of families of LTFC residents and the residents themselves who had previously been treated for pneumonia. Members of staff in these nursing homes were asked to follow a pathway of treatment that would help in deciding the locus of care.

20 nursing homes were matched according to their sizes and a member randomly selected from each pair chosen to use the clinical pathway while the counterpart continued with the normal pneumonia diagnosis and treatment procedure. The family members and residents who could not make informed decisions on the locus of treatment were involved in the study’s in-depth interviews. Nurses were charged with the task of inviting participants that remembered their experiences. Participants signed consent before participating in these interviews.

The data collected from 14 interviews were then analyzed by use of editing style borrowed from Miller and Crabtree. Results of study: Residents and family members alike preferred that pneumonia be treated in the nursing homes as much as possible. Though the reasons for this were varied, most of them argued that nursing homes provide the much needed attention and care than in hospitals. Both parties agreed that some situations would call for hospitalization such as in cases of broken bones, fainting and operations, but not for any reason whatsoever in cases of pneumonia.

The residents preferred