Thesis (M.Sc.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2002. / Restricted until October 2003. Bibliography: leaves 127-136.

No description available.

The elderly are the fastest growing population in the United States. Nurses' attitudes toward caring for the elderly are a very real concern and may determine nurses' behaviors with the elderly. The purpose of this study was to examine the attitudes of nurses toward caring for the elderly residing in long term care institutions. A modified questionnaire, "Attitudes Toward Caring for the Elderly" was used. A combination of Jean Watson's theory of caring and the Ajzen & Fishbein's theory of reasoned action was the theoretical framework used for the study. Three research questions were asked. Data were collected from 32 registered nurses in four long term care institutions. Results showed that nurses attitudes toward caring for the elderly were positive. There were no significant relationships between demographic and personal data and nurses' attitudes toward caring for the elderly. Full time versus part time employment was a significant predictor of nurses attitudes toward caring for the elderly. The low reliability of the tool (Cronbach's alpha = 0.57) could have contributed to the lack of significant data. The study should be repeated after further development of validity and reliability of the tool. / School of Nursing

Long term care placement consists of determining an individual's need for care and services and of allocating appropriate resources. In Quebec, this laborious process includes a standardized application form. / This study examined the work burden incurred and its cost to the system: Social workers in nine Montreal anglophone hospitals as well as in receiving resources were surveyed; the principal researcher of the 'Classification by types of program in extended care and service facilities' project was interviewed; the committee processing these forms was observed; Canadian hospitals were surveyed for comparison with Quebec. / The findings show that the application form requires unnecessary and repetitive information-gathering which consumes excessive time to complete (5.2 hours) and incites non-adherence to guidelines. The implications for streamlining this form without loss of benefit to the patient and at a considerable saving of social work time are discussed in relation to social work practice and research.

Typescript. / Thesis (D. P. H.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1987. / Bibliography: leaves 374-392. / xix, 392 leaves, bound ill. 29 cm

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University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Government and Public Administration

The purpose of this study was to explore the effect an intervention, based on responses from a Life Strengths Interview questionnaire (LSI), has on the quality of life of elderly persons receiving private pay home care. A total of 12 subjects for this study were recruited from Cardinal Health Systems (CHS) Home Care service. This research employed a basic pretest posttest quasiexperimental design, with one experimental group and one control group. Subject selection was not randomized; however, subjects were randomly assigned to either the experimental or control group. Subjects in the experimental group completed the LSI pre-test and subjects in both groups completed the Quality of Life Index (QLI) pre-test and post-test, as well as a posttest care questionnaire. Data from eight subjects were coded and entered into a database; however, due to the small sample size, statistical analysis of responses from the QLI could not be performed. The primary thematic issues identified through qualitative data analysis indicate that home health aide services positively contribute to client quality of life, and that private-pay clients of CHS Homecare are currently satisfied with their quality of care. Qualitative results gathered by this study support future research efforts to explore the relationship between home care services and client quality of life. More specifically, this study can serve as a pilot for researchers interested in exploring the effects of a LSI intervention on clients receiving home care. / Fisher Institute for Wellness and Gerontology

This study is an investigation of the long-term care planning entered into by 170 adult children who had independent parents. A decision-making process with four stages was hypothesized. Sons and daughters entered into planning activities primarily at the "consideration" and "discussion" stages. This involvement proceeds along a sequence of stages with lower stage activities being completed before entering into more advanced stages. Minimal involvement from adult children in "preliminary planning" and "making final decisions" suggests the process does not continue unless independence is threatened. Age and family stressors positively influenced the likelihood that respondents gave consideration to future needs of their parents. The likelihood that discussion occurs between the generations was influenced negatively by family stressors and positively by personal authority. No variables were significant for the "preliminary planning" and "final decision" stages. Application is made to educational and clinical practice. / Ph. D.

Care transition, the process of moving from community care to residential care, is one of the biggest changes that older people can experience in their later life. Evidence from the literature suggests that older people's experiences of care transition tend to be negative and traumatic, with most of them being little involved in the process of care transition. How older people exercise choice during the period of care transition is important for understanding their experiences of care transition for the following two reasons: first, choice has been referred to in the literature as the key to less stressful care transition experiences, which can subsequently lead to a better quality of life in residential homes; second, the introduction of choice in public services has been the key plank of British social policy in recent decades and there has been a movement towards extending choice in residential care. This research aims to study older people's care transition experiences and their exercise of choice during the process of care transition, to explore the meaning and the perceived effects of choice and to identify the role of choice in promoting a positive care transition. This thesis presents findings from 48 in-depth interviews with older people who became new residents in one of the ten participating residential homes in London and had their care paid for by the local authority. This research identified four groups of older people who showed marked differences in terms of their needs, their exercise of choice during the care transition process and their adaptation to residential care: Active Planners, Conformists, the Unsettled and Shelter-Seekers. The findings from this research suggest that the older people's care transition experiences varied and that they stretch beyond the prevailing evidence emphasising the stressfulness of the care transition. The cases of Active Planners and Shelter-Seekers show the potential for positive roles for care homes in the case of users with genuine needs for residential care. An overwhelming majority of the older people who were interviewed were great proponents of choice and many of them actively exercised choice in the course of their care transition. This challenges the claim of the passivity of older people which has been argued in the literature. However, the cases of some Conformists who did not want to exercise choice also highlight that having no choice can be a choice for some older people. On the whole, older people’s exercise of choice played an important role in facilitating a positive transition, despite it not being a precondition for such a transition. However, there were administrative issues limiting the level and the extent of choice that were available to the older people and the Unsettled experienced an undesired move into a care home, having their choices denied or rejected. This thesis also questions the working of choice and competition in residential care, as the older people did not seem to enjoy the expected benefits of choice relating to service improvements which have been argued for in the literature.