The quality of nursing home care: do the opinions of family members changeafter implementation of emotion-oriented care?

Objective. The present study focuses on opinions on the quality of nursing home care of family members of nursing home residents with dementia. Furthe rmore, we examined whether family members' appreciation of the care increas ed as a result of the implementation of emotion-oriented care. Design. Randomized clinical trial. Instrument. An 18-item questionnaire was developed. The following subjects were addressed: communication activities between staff and family members; satisfaction regarding contacts with staff; the extent to which family memb ers can participate in care; the contact that family members experience wit h the person with dementia, and opinions about the way in which nursing sta ff treat residents. Results. Most family members already had a positive opinion on the nursing home care prior to the implementation of emotion-oriented care. The most po sitive assessment concerned the way in which nursing staff treated resident s. The lowest scores concerned communication activities between ward staff and family members. Comparison of the first and end measurements showed tha t in general opinions on the quality of care did not change. Study limitations. A large number of incomplete questionnaires made it impo ssible to conduct factor analysis on the classification of the questions in various sections and therefore allowed us only to make statements at the i tem level. Conclusions. For the most part family members had a positive opinion on the nursing home care. In general, implementation of emotion-oriented care did not lead to a more positive assessment. Despite the generally accepted not ion that involving family members in care is important, family members were regularly treated as outsiders. This demonstrates that there is room for i mprovement in the communication by nursing home staff with family members ( e.g. more frequent contacts and information about the illness).