Persistent family concerns in long-term care settings: meaning and management.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to understand institutional and family caregiver characteristics that contribute to the failure to resolve families' persistent complaints about nursing home care of their relatives.


METHODS
Key informant interviews with 9 family members who had persistent concerns about the care of their relatives were conducted. Two focus groups with 5 nurse managers provided staff perceptions of families whose persistent concerns remained unresolved. Content analysis of both individual interviews and focus groups resulted in the extraction of salient themes.


RESULTS
Factors associated with persistent discord between families and staff included caregivers' perceptions of staff as incompetent, interfamilial conflicts, and unresolved psychosocial issues. Institutional factors contributing to persistent negative perceptions of care included staff's vulnerability in the face of challenges to their professional competence and stress due to disproportionate amounts of time spent educating and supporting health care aids to cope with distraught families.


CONCLUSIONS
The failure to settle, in a mutually satisfactory manner, the complaints of this subgroup of families is discussed in the context of unresolved family issues that interact with institutional failure to respond in a manner that conveys understanding of caregiver stress that is invariably exacerbated when a family member is placed in a long-term care facility.
Marziali
Elsa
E
University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. elsa.marziali@utoronto.ca
Shulman
Kenneth
K
Damianakis
Thecla
T
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002055:Burnout, Professional / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003144:Communication Barriers; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D004645:Empathy; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006801:Humans; D008134:Long-Term Care / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009341:Negativism; D009718:Nurse Administrators / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000523:psychology*; D009735:Nursing Homes / Q000458:organization & administration; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D015279:Organizational Culture; D010344:Patient Advocacy; D011368:Professional-Family Relations; D036301:Qualitative Research; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires