Nursing home research in Jinan, China: a focus group approach

Abstract

This qualitative research using the focus group approach has gathered pertinent perceptions from the stakeholders in Chinese elderly care environment, including community-based and institutionalised elderly, medical providers, administrators and governmental officials. The study found that the elderly are willing to live in nursing homes when they are not in good physical condition and are dependent on others for their activities of daily living. The utilisation of nursing home care has gained acceptance in the community as more elders recognise its advantages. The elderly study subjects expressed interest in the service environment, as well as the cultural and recreational activities in nursing homes. Most participants were satisfied with the quality of nursing care. Administrators and providers in the nursing homes agreed that skilled nursing facilities appear to be more competitive because they require more licensed providers and other professional staff members. A majority of nursing homes face serious financial difficulties.

Staff characteristics and care in Chinese nursing homes: A systematic literature review

“…Most of the NH staff received little professional training in elder care [5,23e25]. Newly recruited direct caregivers were trained mainly by more experienced staff which did not follow standardized or knowledge-based training plans [11,26]. Existing training programs, regardless of being led by NHs, Government agencies, or Bureau of Civil Affairs, focused on providing daily care and basic knowledge about common diseases among older adults [25].…”

“…Basic services were provided, including personal care, basic medical care, room cleaning, meals, and laundry [5,11,23,26]. Wu et al [3] found four different care levels in participating NHs; they classified residents by the level of independence, ranging from totally independent to totally dependent in daily living.…”

“…However, some residents' chronic conditions were neglected [30]. Wu et al [11] found that NHs differed from each other in amenities provided, instead of types and levels of care provided. None of the 10 surveyed NHs in Chengdu had a nutritionist to design individualized diet plans for residents [5].…”

“…For example, only one of the eight studies that used quantitative designs randomly selected participants [5]; the other seven studies used purposive or convenience sampling to select NHs or participants, thus results might not generalize to NHs in the geographic region or Mainland China [10,29,31]. For the three studies that used qualitative designs, none stated explicitly how qualitative rigor was assured [11,26,30]. Also, evidence about care provided by NH staff was very limited.…”

The “Leap Forward” in Nursing Home Development in Urban China: Future Policy Directions

“…6 Taking Shandong Province as an example, the highest occupancy rate is 100% and the lowest only 20%. 38 This situation is further aggravated by China's lack of a central allocation system at any administrative level or formal eligibility criteria governing admission to residential care homes. As there is no clear and consistent definition of residential care and a mixed model of care is adopted to provide services to older persons with different degrees of functional dependency, residential care homes are free to adopt discriminatory admission policies to reject frail and highly dependent applicants.…”