A comparative study of nursing staff, care recipients' and their relatives' perceptions of quality of older people care

• Background.  Comparisons of different stakeholders’ ratings of the quality of older people care can help to drive quality improvement. Aim.  The aim was to compare staff, older care recipients’ and their relatives’ quality of care ratings. Design.  Cross-sectional questionnaire surveys in 2003 and 2004, using a repeated measures design on an organizational level. Methods.  Nursing staff, care recipients and relatives in two older people care organizations were included. The ratings of an overall quality grade, information, activities, general care and staff skills were compared between the respondent groups. Results.  Care recipients in both organizations rated the overall quality grade significantly higher than nursing staff and relatives. Staff ratings of the information given to care recipients were significantly more positive than care recipients’ and relatives’ ratings. All three groups gave lowest ratings to the quality of activities offered to care recipients, with lowest ratings from nursing staff. Conclusions.  Concurrent measurements of staff, care recipients and relatives’ care quality perceptions can provide a broad evaluation of an organization’s strength and limitations. Relevance to clinical practice.  Staff, care recipients’ and relatives’ perceptions can be useful for older people care organizations and decision makers in developing care processes and outcomes of care.

Subject headings

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap -- Omvårdnad (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences -- Nursing (hsv//eng)

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap -- Folkhälsovetenskap, global hälsa, socialmedicin och epidemiologi (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences -- Public Health, Global Health, Social Medicine and Epidemiology (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Ekonomi och näringsliv -- Företagsekonomi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Economics and Business -- Business Administration (hsv//eng)

Keyword

aged care;elderly care;family members;perceived quality of care;proxy

Caring sciences

Vårdvetenskap

Social medicine

Socialmedicin

perceived quality of care

elderly care

family members

proxy

aged care

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)