title: Resistance to change in geriatric care.
abstract: This paper describes an action research project in a hospital for the elderly. The project sought to facilitate changes towards improving the quality of life for the hospital's patients, and the method was based on social systems and psychoanalytic theories. A number of constraints on development were found and there was evidence that these were functional for staff in preventing change towards a model involving closer relationships with the patients, with which a number of anxieties were associated. The strength of the resistance to change was related to the specific stresses of providing care for ageing and dying patients, and has implications for development projects in similar settings.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Smith
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001007:Anxiety; D003657:Decision Making; D005851:Geriatric Nursing / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D008134:Long-Term Care / Q000592:standards; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000523:psychology*; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D010561:Personnel Staffing and Scheduling; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D011788:Quality of Life; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000209:etiology