Staff in Australian nursing homes: their qualifications, experience and attitudes

The Professional Development Needs of Registered Nurses in Residential Aged Care

This paper reports on research which used a multiple-case study approach to investigate the responses of aged care nurses to changes in Australian health care policy following the introduction of the Aged Care Act 1997. Significant fiscal, social and environmental issues for Residential Aged Care (RAC) are the: need to respond to policy changes emphasizing efficiency in RAC facilities, nature of the needs of residents with increasing acuity, impact of decreasing numbers of Registered Nurses (RNs) working in the RAC environment, changing composition of the care team and RAC RN functions. The study explored the phenomenon of the contemporary practice of (RNs) within six RAC settings, focusing on changes in the practice of RNs. As a result of the research a number of issues pertinent to staff and role development of RNs were identified.

Long-term-care residents: concerns identified by population and care trends

OBJECTIVE

Despite rising concern over population aging, few descriptions exist of long-term-care (LTC) residents, the people who are normally the oldest and the most dependent persons. This study sought to describe a LTC resident population and trends in this population.

METHODS

A descriptive-comparative quantitative analysis of all data (1988-1999) from a provincial (Alberta) LTC resident database was undertaken.

FINDINGS

Over the 10-year period, there was a significant increase in care needs. In the 1988, the mean Requirement Score was a "C" (indicating low to medium level care was required); by the 1999, the mean score was "E" (medium to high level care). There were both a substantial reduction in residents with low care needs and an increase in residents with high care needs. Although the mean age of LTC residents increased from 80.5 to 82.5, residents under age 65 had higher care needs. General linear modelling also revealed younger age was a significant influence in regard to higher care needs, along with larger (versus smaller) LTC admission to death also declined significantly from 6.9 to 3.4 years. Although this study may only confirm what is suspected about LTC residents, it should raise discussion over the impact of limited LTC beds on families, community-based health services, and acute care hospitals; and the implications of more dependent residents on LTC facility and personnel planning [corrected]

Rural health and the educational preparation of nurses for aged care

The findings of this study indicate that a large number of nurses practising in the rural areas of Western Australia are regularly working with the elderly. Registered nurses who received some form of education specific to working with the elderly were interested in continuing their education in gerontology. Those registered nurses who did not work regularly with the elderly were the least interested in an external study course. This may be because some nurses working in rural hospitals may prefer to work in their area of expertise rather than in other nursing areas.