AN EXAMINATION OF CONGRUENCE IN RESIDENT AND STAFF PERCEPTIONS OF THE NURSING HOME EXPERIENCE (RESIDENT PERCEPTIONS, ELDERLY).
Contributors: State University of New York at Binghamton.
Published: 1992
Number of pages: 98
Subjects: Psychology, Clinical.; Health Sciences, Nursing.; Gerontology.
Description: Research with health care professionals and elderly living in the community suggests there may be important gaps in the perceptions between these two groups (Rakowski, Hickey, & Dengiz, 1987; Wilson & Netting, 1987). In order to explore possible gaps in understanding between professionals and the elderly, this study first compared staff and resident responses to several questionnaires assessing the nursing home experience to determine the areas in which the staff accurately perceive the feelings, thoughts, and attitudes of the residents, as well as the areas in which there are mismatches between the staff and residents. Responses on behavioral measures, ratings of staff and resident characteristics, and questionnaires assessing different aspects of nursing home care indicated that staff and residents in fact held different perceptions of the nursing home experience. Staff typically rated the residents as being more physically impaired than the residents rated themselves, and the residents rated themselves as more content and less stressed than the staff thought they would rate themselves on psychological measures.

One reason for the lack of congruence in perception of the nursing home experience may be negative attitudes or stereotyping toward elderly patients by health care professionals, referred to as ageism (Baker, 1984). One method hypothesized to decrease stereotyping is to elicit specific and unique information distinguishing the individual from the stereotyped group, although this technique has rarely been attempted to decrease stereotyping of the elderly (Hamilton & Trolier, 1990). To examine the benefits of this technique, an intervention consisting of three semi-structured interviews by staff persons of residents was employed in an effort to help individualize residents to the staff and enhance communication, attempting to increase understanding between staff and residents and improve the image staff held of residents. The intervention did enhance individual perceptions staff and residents held of each other, although several differences remained in global perceptions of the nursing home experience. There was no difference in scores between staff in the experimental and control groups on a measure of stereotyping of the elderly.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-02, Section: B, page: 1084.

Thesis (PH.D.)--STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AT BINGHAMTON, 1992.

School code: 0792.