Journal scan.
The Resident Assessment Instrument (RAI) was developed in the United States as a response to concerns about poor care in nursing homes, but it has subsequently been used in research studies in many other countries. In this Dutch study, a nonrandomised, controlled trial design was employed to study the implementation of the RAI on nursing home wards. Residents with mental health problems, and those admitted for rehabilitation or with a terminal illness were excluded from the study. The results indicated that implementation of the RAI resulted in an improvement in the co-ordination of care, including the quality of documentation, but also highlighted some of the difficulties encountered in the introduction of change to the nursing home setting. 14 references.