The Implementation of a Model of Person-Centred Practice In Older ...

The implementation of a model of person-centred practice in older person settings
Residents are admitted to the Unit for a variety of reasons i.e. long term care,
rehabilitation, respite care and special care/hospice services. The Unit also provides
a structured day care service, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, dietician, and the
services of a very enthusiastic Activities Team.
Programme group
The programme participants from each of the sites were representative of the
following groups; nursing, health care attendants; housekeeping catering staff.
Programme groups size ranged from 7-16. Having representation from all care
groups was a very significant positive contribution to the programme. It enriched the
contributions from the participations on programme days.
Each of the sites had named internal facilitators (IF). In St Vincent’s the IF was at
assistant nursing director level; St Brigid’s the clinical nurse specialist for activation
therapies was the lead. In BCNU for the first year of the programme, the IF was the
acting director of nursing. She left to take up a new post at the end of year one. The
group were very anxious that the programme should continue, two of the participants
stepped forward to take on the role of the internal leads for the programme. The
change in roles, while very positive did create new tensions and challenges for the
IFs and the participants. It did however highlight the importance of the sustainability
of the programme and was an acknowledgement of the achievements within the unit
to date. During that time there was also in BCNU a change in leadership with the
appointment of a new director of nursing and a new assistant director of nursing.
The new director was somewhat familiar with the programme and was fully
supportive from the very beginning.
Achievements
There were similarities across all three sites from the findings of the observations,
narratives and environmental walkabouts throughout the programme. However there
were specific findings from the observations and environmental walkabout from St
Brigid’s that were not applicable to the other sites. A detailed action plan to address
issues identified was developed in collaboration with the key stakeholders in all units.
Emerging themes from the qualitative data collection identified were:
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