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Chapter 2: Literature Review
identify the factors that influence family involvement in nursing home care; and
thirdly, to seek the opinions of families and nursing home staff on changes they
would like to see in the role of family carers. Sixty nursing homes in Northern
Ireland were selected randomly and invited to participate in the study. Fifteen homes
agreed to participate. A member of staff from each nursing home then distributed a
questionnaire to all family members. The questionnaire was developed from a task
inventory designed by Shuttlesworth et al. (1990), which identified a range of tasks
that nursing home administrators, relatives and friends of residents deemed essential
in nursing home care. The questionnaire was also distributed to all staff in the
participating homes. Of the 225 questionnaires distributed to family members, 44
were completed (19.5%) and of the 225 questionnaires distributed to staff, 78 were
completed (34.6%). For the interviews, a convenience sample from the completed
questionnaires resulted in interviews with 10 family members and 10 staff members.
The interviews were semi-structured and focused on thoughts, feelings and issues not
explored in the questionnaire (the interview guide was tested in a pilot with three
nurses and three family members).
Overall, the study found that family carers perceived themselves to have a greater
role in caring for relatives than that perceived by staff. The researchers suggested
that either families over-estimated their involvement, or staff under-estimated
families’ involvement. The families perceived nurses as providers of technical care
and they perceived themselves as having an important role to play in providing social
care (e.g. personalising the resident’s room, keeping them company, taking them out
and providing a link with the resident’s past) and in care planning (providing
information about the resident’s likes, dislikes, hobbies and biographical details).
Families wished to see more individualised care and more activities. The researchers
suggested that families are perhaps under-valued as a resource in residential care.
The researchers concluded that family members have biographical preservative
expertise, which should be utilised to enhance resident autonomy and that family
members should be involved in the assessment, planning, implementation and
evaluation of care. It is acknowledged that the questionnaires yielded low response
rates (19.5% and 34.6%). However, the researchers supplemented the questionnaire
data collection method with qualitative interviews of sufficient numbers. Ryan and
Scullion (2000) stated that Shuttlesworth et al.’s (1990) inventory had been used in