Improving working conditions for nursing care aides may help cut down on missed and rushed tasks and improve overall quality of care for skilled nursing residents, finds a new study led by University of Alberta nursing researchers.
The cross-sectional study used data collected from 93 urban eldercare facilities in Western Canada. More than 4,000 care aides completed structured, in-person interviews, where researchers asked them whether they had missed or rushed any essential tasks during their most recent shift due to a lack of time.
Results of the interviews showed that rates of missed and rushed essential care tasks were higher in units with negative work environments that included factors such as poor employee communication and a lack of leadership, said the study’s lead author Yuting Song, Ph.D., a nursing department postdoctoral fellow at the University of Alberta. Care aides in nursing homes with more positive work environments were 59% less likely to miss care tasks and 66% less likely to rush them.
The two most frequently missed and rushed care tasks were walking and talking with residents, the researchers reported.
“This finding suggests that work environment may be an important pathway for improving quality of care,” Song concludes.
The study was published in JAMA Network Open.
