Improving Quality of Life for Older People in Long-Stay Care ...

y participants to be taken into account (Glen and Waddington, 1998). However,the methodology cannot be described as one of case study, mainly because theemphasis throughout the work is on the identification of quality of life domainsrather than on providing a holistic, integrated and comparative account of the 12 studysites. Although comprehensive data was collected, case study material will not bepresented primarily because access to residents and staff for the qualitative studywas predicated on guaranteeing owners, managers and respondents of the 12 facilitiesa high level of anonymity; this would not be possible using a case study methodology.88To provide contextual data and facilitate data collection 12 study sites were selectedin line with criteria that ensured that they were reflective of the five types of longstayfacilities. Geriatric hospitals (n = 2) and the welfare home (n = 1) were selectedon the basis of age of the establishment and number of residents. Voluntary facilities(n = 2) were selected on the basis of governance and number of residents. Healthboard district hospitals (n = 2) were selected on the basis of type and age ofestablishment. Private nursing homes (n = 5) were selected on the basis of size,governance/ownership and original purpose of the facility. The number of studysites chosen within each facility type was also determined by the percentage ofbeds that facility type had of the total number of long-stay beds. These inclusioncriteria were agreed by the Quality of Life in Long-Stay Care ConsultativeCommittee set up by the NCAOP. Following this agreement, a list of all eligiblesites was drawn up and study sites were selected at random from that list.4.5.2 Number of Study SitesThe number of study sites to be included in this study was agreed in advancewith the NCAOP Consultative Committee. The location of sites was confinedto the East and West of the country in order to minimise travel and data collectioncosts. For the purposes of the study, East was defined as the counties ofDublin, Kildare, Wicklow and Meath. The West included the counties of Mayo,Roscommon, Galway and Clare. Facilities were also divided into urban and ruralin the two regions. Urban was defined as Dublin and Galway cities while rural wasall other areas. A minimum of one urban and one rural facility in each categorywas included, except for community/district hospitals, and a proportionally highernumber of private facilities were included to reflect the current ratio of private topublic facilities in the country. As there were no community or district hospitals inthe two urban areas included, two rural study sites were chosen in this category –one a community hospital and one a district hospital.Improving Quality of Life for Older People in Long-Stay Care Settings in Ireland