Family involvement in the nursing home: Family-oriented practices and staff-family relationships

Abstract

Staff-family cooperation in caring for elders in nursing homes is recommended but poorly understood. Family involvement and staff-family interactions in nursing homes with differing family orientations were investigated. Friedemann's (1995) system-based family theory guided the study. Of all 208 licensed nursing homes in southern Michigan, 143 completed a survey about their family-oriented practices. Family orientation was ranked accordingly. Twenty-four nursing homes were randomly selected to conduct semistructured telephone interviews with 177 family members. Data were analyzed by thematic interpretation. Findings showed a wide range of involvement patterns that promoted family connectedness, maintenance of control, growth, and learning. Families desired various types of staff cooperation and were given such opportunities in homes with high family orientation.

Development and Examination of a Family Triadic Measure to Examine Quality of Life Family Congruence in Nursing Home Residents and Two Family Members

“…The current study found that this was the case: More family involvement overall contributed to more QOLFC. This is consistent with the family involvement literature in various long-term care settings (Friedemann et al, 1997; Gaugler, 2005). Family involvement continues after nursing home placement and is enmeshed in the nature of family systems (Caron, 1997; Gaugler, 2005; Janzen, 2001).…”

Building Collaboration in Caring for People with Schizophrenia

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Staff–Family Relationships in Residential Aged Care Facilities

“…The findings of this study support the well-established view that constructive staff-family relationships are more likely to develop when both staff and family recognize and value one another's knowledge and expertise and work together to improve resident care (Friedemann, Montgomery, Mailberger, & Smith, 1997). In particular, communication was an underlying theme throughout the findings, which is consistent with existing literature on this topic (Austin et al, 2009;Majerovitz et al, 2009;Utley-Smith et al, 2009).…”