Leadership challenges and strategies to dementia care in Chinese faith‐based nursing homes: A qualitative study

Abstract

Aim: To address the need and fill a knowledge gap in understanding challenges and coping strategies from the perspectives of nursing home leadership. Background:The rapid increase of older adults with dementia in China highlights the need for research on dementia care in long-term care facilities.Methods: Semistructured interviews were conducted among 20 facility directors employed by faith-based nursing homes across 12 provinces in China via phone or in-person in their native language. Two researchers fluent in Mandarin Chinese-and English-coded interview transcripts; thematic analysis was conducted to identify patterns.Results: Four primary challenges were identified, including recruiting and retaining nursing staff, funding, lacking governmental support and discord with family members. The coping strategies included using external resources, incorporating religious beliefs, teamwork, rewarding performance and improving staff skills and empathy.Conclusions: This study contributes to nursing home practice knowledge by disseminating insights of administrators regarding culturally relevant dementia management strategies in China.Implications for nursing management: Implications for nursing management are as follows: teamwork and staff encouragement; advocate for a sustainable governmental financial support; staff training and staff-resident ratio regulations and policy; seeking external resources; integrate faith-based means for problem management and service quality improvement.

Medical-elderly care integrated institutions managers' perspectives in China on the operational issues of their facilities: A qualitative study

“…The majority of the institutions in this study failed to have su cient and quali ed healthcare professionals; a large proportion of the elderly caregivers were women with low literacy, higher age and without standardized pre-service training. This result is similar to existing studies, and the shortage of personnel is a problem faced by almost all elderly care institutions worldwide [21,[26][27]. In response to this problem, parts of countries like Japan, the United States and some European nations, they are replacing or supplementing the shortage of labor force through the use of robotics, telemedicine and other intelligent means [28][29][30].…”

“…Focusing on resources from non-pro t social organizations, such as volunteers, strengthens the ow of social capital into the institutional elderly service industry. Institutions can get in touch with non-pro t groups to build relationships and obtain resources, thus creating a favorable atmosphere for the elderly and delivering more comprehensive senior care services [27]. Further, it was found in the course of the research that the occupancy rate of most institutions was low, with the occupancy rate of some private institutions even being less than 60 percent.…”