Consumer Preference in Nursing Homes Selection – Addressing Staffing and Quality Care Issues
As many as 95% of nursing homes in the US are reported to be understaffed. Ineffective regulation and poor quality in gerontological nursing homes is a major concern. According to (Schiamberg et al., 2011), understaffing in these facilities can directly contribute to patient abuse because underpaid and overwhelmed staff are likely to be abusive. Staff members who are excessively stressed can result in neglecting their patients. For immobile patients, it becomes impossible for staff members to turn them as often times in a day as they should or even move them as many times as they should to prevent bedsores and muscle atrophy. This can cause patients to have infections or skin conditions. Patients who need to be groomed, fed, bathed, and medicated tend to suffer from neglect. If a patient is incontinent of urine and stool and needs assistance in getting to the bathroom, any delays can result in infections and other complications (Zhang et al., 2010).
Additionally, poor hygiene from staff members can cause a spread of germs from the staff to the nursing home residents. Most times, poor hygiene is a result of understaffing in nursing homes (Castle, Handler, & Wagner, 2016). When staff is overwhelmed with carrying out their duties, such as changing diapers or dressing wounds on the residents, they may neglect following hygienic protocol and end up passing infections and germs to the residents and each other. Further, too busy staff may also neglect to regularly and adequately sanitize bathrooms, baths, and showers, which are high-risk areas for the spread of germs and which may also cause diseases to spread due to un-cleanliness.
There are lawsuits in the past and even currently that have been filed against nursing homes that are related directly to poor hygiene. In addition, millions of dollars have been paid out by nursing homes to patients who have been victims of illness or wrongful death as a consequence of understaffing in nursing facilities. When nursing homes are charged with neglect, abuse, or any other form of injustice towards the residents, it means the facilities will most likely be shut down or reduce their running costs by increased understaffing, which basically becomes a vicious cycle.
One possible cause of poor care quality in nursing homes is the inadequate training of staff. The great care complexity and increased acuity of residents in nursing homes call for enhanced training requirements for staff. However, there are three major issues that revolve around the training requirements of nurses. The first is that there are no set levels on what the training should be on offering quality care. Secondly, training is not free; the nursing facility, the worker, or another third party, will be liable to pay for the training. Thirdly, higher requirements for training may worsen the shortage of staff which in turn will make it more difficult for nursing home service provision.
To counter the three issues mentioned above, this paper will look into the consumer aspect of the business. When consumers are given information on which nursing homes offer the best quality care for aging residents, then nursing homes will compete to be at the top in the industry. This will mean that nursing homes will undertake nurse staff training, increase their number of staff, and retain nurses to remain competitive. Hence, this research paper will explore the effect of consumer information on the choice of a nursing home. The results of the research will be used to inform nursing home facilities about what customers are looking for and what they, as service providers, can do to ensure that they meet their customer’s needs and remain competitive. Hence, the research question is: ‘What do consumers look for in selecting a nursing home for their elderly loved ones?’
References
Castle, N., Handler, S., & Wagner, L. (2016). Hand hygiene practices reported by nurse aides in nursing homes. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 35(3), 267-285.
Schiamberg, L. B., Barboza, G. G., Oehmke, J., Zhang, Z., Griffore, R. J., Weatherill, R. P., … & Post, L. A. (2011). Elder abuse in nursing homes: An ecological perspective. Journal of elder abuse & neglect, 23(2), 190-211.
Zhang, Z., Schiamberg, L. B., Oehmke, J., Barboza, G. E., Griffore, R. J., Post, L. A., … & Mastin, T. (2010). Neglect of older adults in Michigan nursing homes. Journal of Elder Abuse & Neglect, 23(1), 58-74.
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Question 
Consumer Preference in Nursing Homes Selection – Addressing Staffing and Quality Care Issues
I need help with the research assignment. I am personally interested in developing a question regarding the need to develop higher minimum staffing standards in U.S Nursing Homes, preferably in New York State. Please see Getting to Know Me for order 36591, which discusses my work experience as a Registered Nurse. I have worked for Long Island Community Hospital (Formerly Brookhaven Memorial Hospital at 101 Hospital Road Patchogue, New York, on Long Island, which is privately owned by the McGuire Corporation. I resigned in December 2012 because I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I have recently gone back to the hospital to seek a registered nurse position, and I was appalled to learn that my good friend, who has since become a nurse manager for the cardiac care unit, was expected to foresee managing an additional cardiac care unit on the same floor of the hospital for over a year putting patient safety at risk. I was not able to get hired, and I did not know the reason until I learned there was a hiring freeze because the hospital was not doing well financially. I, therefore, sought employment on the Indeed.com website, where I received a phone call from the McGuire Nursing Home at 801 Gazzola Drive East Patchogue, New York 11772. I was delighted to go for the interview today, 11/12/2019, but disappointed to learn during the interview that I would be responsible for medicating a 22-24 patient subacute unit, attaining new admission information with perhaps 4 or more admissions and doing wound care. The human resource manager went on to tell me that McGuire Nursing Home is not connected with Long Island Community Hospital, but they get all the referrals for nursing home care. Also, even though they are not connected with them, they own the hospital. Weird. I was hired by the NYC Public School District in Queens as a public health nurse for the junior high school and was looking to supplement my income. Nursing is not a job for me, but it is my livelihood. I believe not only am I at risk of losing my nursing license being responsible for a 24-patient unit, but I am submitting to support the provision of inadequate health care by putting the residents at risk for infections, falls and medication errors. I want to help the hospital put an end to this poor healthcare practice so the laws can be changed in the United States to protect the elderly population in our communities. This is the topic of business research I would like to focus on, can you help me.
The Assignment
Research Question Exercise
Background for Assignment:
Whether you will be writing a business plan, a community change initiative, a project management plan, or a research paper, the concepts presented here apply. The business plan question will be around a product or service and basically how it can impact its world – through the business you plan (see more below). If you choose to do one of the other types of projects, thoughts about developing your research question are fleshed out here.