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5.1 Introduction
5. Findings
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Chapter 5 Findings
This chapter describes the findings from the phase one case study. They are
presented in four sections. Firstly, a description of the case study site (research
unit) is presented including a description on the days when the observations were
carried out. Secondly, the findings from the documentary analysis are reported.
Thirdly, the findings from the interviews and observations are reported, and
finally the findings from the staff attitude survey are presented. The chapter
concludes with a table summarising an integration of the findings across the data
sets.
5.2 Description of the Research Unit
The research unit was a 42-bedded unit for residential care for older people. It
was managed as part of an acute hospital that serves the Western seaboard of
Ireland. It represents a “typical” public facility for residential care for older
people in Ireland (as per “Design guide for community nursing units”, 1986. Irish
health repository and as per the “typical” criteria established at the beginning of
this research). It shares the same characteristics as other public residential
facilities such as communal wards, day rooms, lack of multi-disciplinary services
and comparable resident dependency levels (Murphy et al., 2006). In order to
assist the reader in understanding what the research unit was like, the physical
environment will now be described followed by a description of the staff profile
and the resident profile.
5.2.1 Description of the Physical Environment of the Research Unit
Originally built in the 1950s, this research unit was designed to care for people
with tuberculosis. Later it was adapted for residential care for older people. At
the time this research was conducted its layout comprised an extremely long
corridor with a kitchen, staff room (where report was given and breaks taken),
day room and wards on the left side of the corridor. The wards were laid out as
six, 7-bedded wards (not all were fully occupied), two 2-bedded wards, one
single room, one isolation room (for residents with infections) and one special