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

The implementation of a model of person-centred practice in older person settings
When the programme commenced, each of the three sites were at varying stages of
change and development and all had individual reasons why they wanted to start
implementing person-centred practice although what this meant and how it would
look wasn’t fully understood. Anticipating a more empowered workforce was an ideal
that was welcomed but difficult to vision or really comprehend. It was in the last year
of the programme that this became a reality to varying degrees. One site said that:
“we thought that we were person-centred and that the external facilitators didn’t really
understand the way we work here”. “We had no idea how complex the programme
would be or we might have backed out”. “I wondered what this course would do for
me”.
Having a sense of what the programme was about was unclear in the beginning,
maybe because the three sites thought that they were already person-centred and
that this was just a theoretical programme:
“we are very person-centred here”, “we have always been person-centred”.
The reality of the contrast between espoused values about care and what was
actually happening became too obvious to ignore or defend and group members
started to question their practice in a more critical way:
“we thought we were person-centred but we realise that we were not”.
Pressure mounted within the groups where some staff continued to maintain that the
care was good and did not require any major change. This caused various issues
within the PD groups where some members continued to maintain that care was
person-centred while the majority of the group acknowledged that care practices
needed to change and openly challenged each other.
One of the key tools now much more appreciated and that can makes a significant
contribution to unpicking the issues for team working and effective care is the
Person-centred Practice Framework (McCormack and McCance, 2009). The
understanding of the importance of this framework grew slowly over the duration of
the programme with a belief that this is the starting point of person-centred team and
care development. It is complex in the appreciation of each prerequisite within the
framework and took time to fully appreciate the importance of each prerequisite and
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