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- Backman, Annica, 1972-
(författare)
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Leadership : person-centred care and the work situation of staff in Swedish nursing homes
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Background: Swedish nursing home managers, who constitute the empirical focus of this thesis, hold overall operational responsibility for the nursing homes, which includes the care of residents, direct care staff and work environment. Aged care organisations are also expected to provide person-centred care. Working towards a person-centred approach poses new demands and leads to challenges for leaders, and there is currently limited knowledge of what characterises leadership that promotes a person-centred approach. In addition, an ongoing demographic shift in the aged care workforce entails further challenges, as the proportion of professional workers is decreasing. Leading a healthy work environment is therefore important for ensuring and protecting staff health. Based on this, it is important to explore nursing home managers’ leadership in relation to person-centred care and the work situation of staff.Aim: The overall aim was to explore leadership in relation to person-centred care and the work situation of staff in Swedish nursing homes.Methods: This thesis is based on data from two data collections. First, it includes cross-sectional baseline data from a national inventory of health and care in Swedish nursing homes (SWENIS) collected in 2013-2014. The SWENIS dataset consists of a sample of staff n=3605 from 169 nursing homes in 35 municipalities, and nursing home managers n=191. The second data collection consists of 11 semi-structured interviews with 12 nursing home managers in highly person-centred nursing homes that already participated in SWENIS. Data were explored via descriptive statistics, simple and multiple regression analyses, and qualitative content analysis.Results: Leadership was positively associated with person-centred care and psychosocial climate. Highly rated leadership behaviors’ among nursing homes managers was characterized by experimenting with new ideas, controlling work closely, relying on his/her subordinates, coaching and giving direct feedback, and handling conflicts constructively. Leading person-centred care can be outlined by four leadership processes: embodying person-centred being and doing; promoting a person-centred atmosphere; maximizing person-centred team potential and optimising person-centred support structures. Leadership was also positively associated with social support and negatively associated with job strain. Further, the variation in leadership was to a very small extent explained by the nursing home managers’ educational qualification, operational form of the nursing home and the number of employees in a unit.Conclusions: All findings point in the same direction: that leadership, as it is characterized and measured in this thesis, is significantly associated with person-centred care provision as well as with the work situation of staff. This suggests that nursing managers have a central leadership role in developing and supporting person-centred care practices, and also in creating a healthy work environment. The results also highlight five specific leadership behaviours that are most characteristic of highly rated leadership, thereby adding concrete descriptions of behaviours to the literature on existing leadership theories. The findings also include four central processes for leading towards person-centred care in nursing homes. Taken together, it seems important for managers to translate the person-centred philosophy into actions and to promote an atmosphere pervaded by innovation and trust, in which cultural change is enhanced by positive cultural bearers. Utilizing the overall knowledge and competencies among staff and potentiating care teams was also considered important for leading person-centred care, along with optimising supportive structures for supporting and maintaining person-centred care. If aged care organisations are to be committed to person-centred care, an important implication seems to be to organise nursing homes in a way that allows nursing home managers to be close and present in clinical practice and actively lead towards person-centred care. The findings of this thesis contribute to our understanding of leadership in relation to person-centre care and the work situation of staff. These findings can be used in leadership educations and nursing curriculum. Longitudinal studies would be valuable for following leadership, person-centred care and the work situation of staff over time.
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| 2. |
- Baxter, Rebecca, 1989-
(författare)
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“Life is for living” : exploring thriving for older people living in nursing homes
- 2021
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Background: Demand for formal care in nursing homes has steadily increased in recent decades, prompting calls for exploration of health-promoting and salutogenic concepts that support people not only to survive in older age, but to thrive. The concept of thriving has been described as a holistic experience of place-related well-being resulting from interactions between the person and their lived-environment. However, detailed understandings of thriving among nursing home residents and staff are lacking, and little is known about the variables that influence thriving, how thriving is regarded outside of Scandinavia, or the extent to which thriving may change over time.Aim: The overall aim of this thesis was to explore meanings, expressions, measurements, and associations for thriving in nursing homes. Study I aimed to illuminate the meanings of thriving as narrated by persons living in an Australian nursing home. Study II aimed to explore how Australian nursing home staff recognise expressions of thriving among persons living in nursing homes. Study III aimed to further test and describe the psychometric properties and performance of the 32-item Thriving of Older People Assessment Scale (TOPAS) and to develop a short-form TOPAS. Study IV aimed to describe longitudinal changes in Swedish nursing home thriving over a five-year period and describe changes in associated factors. Methods: For studies I and II data were collected in the form of qualitative interviews with Australian nursing home residents (N=21; study I) and staff (N=14; study II). Qualitative data were analysed using phenomenological hermeneutical analysis and qualitative content analysis respectively. For studies III and IV cross-sectional baseline (i.e., 2013/2014) and follow-up (i.e., 2018/2019) data were collected from a nationally representative sample of Swedish nursing homes for the Swedish National Inventory of Care and Health in Residential Aged Care (SWENIS) study. The baseline SWENIS I sample consisted of 4,831 proxy-rated resident surveys from 35 municipalities (study III) and the follow-up SWENIS II sample consisted of 3,894 proxy-rated resident surveys from 43 municipalities (study IV). Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics, validity testing, item response theory-based analysis, and simple linear regression.Results: The meanings of thriving for nursing home residents were understood as encompassing elements of acceptance, balance, and contentment in relation to the person’s living situation, as well as their social and physical environment (study I). These meanings were interpreted as having options and choices, and the agency to make decisions where possible, in relation to the care and living environment. Nursing home staff were found to recognise expressions of thriving through a combination of understanding, observing, and sensing (study II). Staff described recognising thriving through reflective assessment processes that involved comparing and contrasting their personal and professional interpretations of thriving with their overall sense of the resident. Psychometric testing of the 32-item and short-form versions of the TOPAS showed good validity and reliability to measure thriving among nursing home residents (study III). Population characteristics were relatively consistent between the SWENIS I baseline and SWENIS II follow-up samples (study IV). A sub-sample of nursing homes that participated in both baseline and follow-up data collections reported a statistically significant increase for thriving and a decrease in the prevalence of neuropsychiatric symptoms. Higher and lower thriving was associated with several neuropsychiatric symptoms.Conclusions: Thriving appeared to be a relevant and meaningful phenomenon with shared understandings among nursing home residents and staff, providing valuable support for the ongoing assessment and application of thriving in international and cross-cultural nursing home settings. The TOPAS appeared valid and reliable to facilitate proxy-rated measurement of thriving among nursing home residents, and the short-form TOPAS could have enhanced use for assessment of thriving in research and practice. Changes to the overall thriving scores between baseline and follow-up provides important information that may be used as a reference point for future measurements and comparisons of thriving and its associated variables over time. This thesis highlights the importance of considering the various experiences, perceptions, and interpretations of thriving if such a concept is to be effectively embedded in person-centred care, policy, and practice.
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| 3. |
- Corneliusson, Laura, 1989-
(författare)
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Exploring resident health, wellbeing, and thriving in Swedish sheltered housing
- 2021
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Background: As the population of older people is expected to increase in the coming decades, an increase in service demand will likely follow. Aging in place is common in Sweden, but may be associated with loneliness, anxiety, and other negative health effects. Swedish sheltered housing began to emerge around 2008, and was aimed at older people who felt socially isolated, anxious, or unsafe aging in place. Swedish sheltered housing was to be a form of independent housing, providing accommodation with increased opportunities for social participation and accessible spaces, but with no provision of health care services. Despite the emergence of such housing, and policy documents outlining anticipated benefits, the national and international scientific body of knowledge is small.Aim: The overall aim of this thesis was to explore the health, wellbeing and thriving of residents living in Swedish sheltered housing.Methods: This thesis is based on data from two data collections and registry data. The first data collection, the U-Age Sheltered Housing Survey Study, took place between October 2016 and January 2017, and consisted of surveys sent to residents living in Swedish sheltered housing, and to a matched control group. The matching criteria was age, sex and municipality of residence. The sample for the U-Age Sheltered Housing Survey Study consisted of 3,805 individuals: 1, 955 individuals living in sheltered housing, and 1,850 aging in place. The second data collection took place between April 2019 and January 2020, and consisted of semi-structured interviews in five sheltered housing accommodations which had participated in the U-age Sheltered Housing Survey Study. This data collection consisted of a total of seven group interviews with a sample of 38 residents. In addition, to enable longitudinal analyses, registry data on social services resource utilization and mortality was obtained from The Department of Health and Welfare in Sweden and Statistics Sweden. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, linear regression analyses with interaction variables, logistic regressions, and qualitative content analysis.Results: Residents living in Swedish sheltered housing generally reported lower self-rated health, lower health-related quality of life, lower functional status, and higher depressive mood, compared to those aging in place. With increasing level of depressive mood, and decreasing levels of self-rated health and functional status, those residing in sheltered housing generally reported higher levels of thriving, compared to those aging in place. A higher proportion of those living in Swedish sheltered housing received home care services, and received on average more home care service hours, compared to those aging in place. Furthermore, a higher proportion of residents living in sheltered housing had relocated to a nursing home and deceased over a 3-year period, compared to those aging in place. Rates of relocation to a nursing home and mortality were higher among those who lived in Swedish sheltered housing and received home care services, compared to those living in Swedish sheltered housing who did not receive home care services. Interviews with residents living in Swedish sheltered housing revealed four different levels to the experienced facilitators and barriers to thriving in Swedish sheltered housing: individual factors, social context, environmental factors and organizational context.Conclusions: There seems to be both a want, and a potential need, for health care related support among residents living in Swedish sheltered housing. Although residents in Swedish sheltered housing reported slightly lower self-rated wellbeing than older people aging in place, differences in wellbeing did not seem to be explained by type of accommodation per se. There do however seem to be aspects in Swedish sheltered housing that support thriving specifically among those with lower levels of health, lower functional status, and higher depressive mood, when compared to those aging in place. It seems possible that thriving in Swedish sheltered housing may be influenced by the interplay of various especially influential aspects, such as, but not limited to, levels of health, the services provided, the experience of the social environment, and the perceived support. Thereby, providing residents of Swedish sheltered housing with more health care related support and information could further support resident health and thriving. The findings of this thesis contribute to the currently limited pool of knowledge on health, wellbeing, and thriving in Swedish sheltered housing, and may assist in developing tailored services, support, and interventions for the demographic residing in this type of housing.
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