Gilbert, A.S. orcid.org/0000-0002-0525-8516, Batchelor, F. orcid.org/0000-0002-7302-7293, Devlin, N. orcid.org/0000-0002-1561-5361 et al. (5 more authors) (2025) Routine quality-of-life measurement in residential aged care: staff, resident, and family perspectives. The Patient - Patient-Centered Outcomes Research. ISSN 1178-1653
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: There is interest in routinely measuring quality of life (QoL) in aged care homes, evidenced by the Australian Government's implementation of QoL as a mandatory quality indicator. This study explores views of aged care staff, residents, and family members on the benefits, challenges, and feasibility of implementing routine QoL measures.
METHODS: Qualitative data were gathered to explore staff, resident, and family perspectives on QoL measurement in aged care homes, including purpose, benefits, implementation, and best practice. Two staff workshops were conducted at different aged care homes, and semi-structured interviews were held with 29 proxies (9 family members and 20 staff) and 24 residents. Workshops and interviews were transcribed verbatim, and thematically analysed via a qualitative interpretive approach using NVivo software.
RESULTS: Analysis yielded four key themes: (1) benefits of routine QoL measurement; (2) challenges in implementation; (3) best practice for collecting surveys; (4) validity concerns. Identified benefits included potentially improved care, monitoring service performance, and informing family members. Staff participants recommended integrating measures into existing care planning and having oversight from a registered nurse. Participants identified potential implementation challenges, including administrative burden, time and resourcing constraints, conflicts of interest, and resistance from staff, providers, and residents.
CONCLUSIONS: This study identifies potential benefits to implementing routine QoL measurement in residential aged care homes. To maximise these benefits, it is important to consider how measurement can be integrated in ways that contribute to existing care planning and practices.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2025. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. |
Keywords: | Health Services and Systems; Nursing; Health Sciences; Health Services; Clinical Research; Behavioral and Social Science; Organisation and delivery of services; Management and decision making; Generic health relevance; Good Health and Well Being |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health (Sheffield) > School of Medicine and Population Health |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 14 Feb 2025 15:54 |
Last Modified: | 14 Feb 2025 15:54 |
Status: | Published online |
Publisher: | Springer Science and Business Media LLC |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1007/s40271-025-00729-7 |
Related URLs: | |
Sustainable Development Goals: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:223299 |