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Philip Y. Kao PhD thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText

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Figure 7<br />

The 5 th floor lobby area<br />

The 4 th Floor Layout<br />

Unlike the third floor, the fourth floor is busier. Residents on the third floor rarely<br />

pushed their call button necklaces. On the fourth floor, residents pushed their call<br />

buttons regularly. This meant that caregivers were always rushing between rooms to<br />

attend to call buttons in addition to doing their routine tasks. Because of this, it felt that<br />

each caregiver was assigned to look after twenty people, when in reality they had to help<br />

about a dozen. Some of the residents pushed their call buttons for specific requests, like<br />

finding out how to use the telephone to call their daughter, or to get a caregiver to help<br />

them use the toilet. More often than not, many of the residents pushed their buttons,<br />

because they wanted someone to just show up and engage with them. Caregivers<br />

followed the various care plans and each of them had a list of tasks to perform that they<br />

routinized. Therefore, they did not welcome these call buttons. Attending to ad hoc<br />

requests, and returning every ten minutes to someone’s room, because they simply<br />

sought attention, added to the overall stress on the fourth floor. Some of the residents on<br />

94

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