By 2030, about 3 million people in the USA are expected to be in nursing homes. Based on previous studies, residents receive limited care in some nursing homes. Since quality of these residents' life is affected, further research is a vital concern. Identifying perceived needs of these elderly allows health professionals to develop appropriate interventions and provide quality care to the elderly. While there is an acknowledged need for such information, no instrument has been identified that measures perceived nursing home needs making this an innovative project. The purpose of this non-theoretical study was to assess reliability and validity of an instrument to measure perceived needs regarding nursing home care. The items were based on prior reported patient concerns and initially created by Dr. Norma Chaska. A convenience sample of 29 newly admitted residents was selected from three mid-west nursing homes. The MMSE was administered to potential subjects to ensure adequacy of cognitive abilities (a score of 24 or above). An analysis of pilot data indicated that only 37 of 61 items had adequate variance to justify further analysis. Using Principal Component analysis, four factors were extracted accounting for 63% of the variance. Based on the factors' content they were labeled: adequacy of personnel, personal care, non-physical care, and adequacy of resources. Internal consistency (Alpha) for adequacy of personnel was .91, personal care was .88, non-physical care was .90, and adequacy of resources was .83. Results of this study provide a basis for further refining these scales. Based on such information, nursing interventions can be developed to provide and improve quality of care. Since nursing home care is becoming an international concern, the fact that the items are simplicity written making it easier to translate for international use is an added bonus.
Session #1219 - Poster Session I
The 29th Annual MNRS Research Conference (April 1-4, 2005)