The Change in Nursing Home Residents' Preferences Over Time.
Katherine M Abbott, Allison R Heid, Morton Kleban and 2 others
PMID 30287264WHAT IT FOUND
Most everyday preferences stayed on the same important or not important side of the scale for most residents over three months.
Staff can use a short list of high priority preferences for care planning without reassessing every item each quarter.
Key findings
01255 residents rated 72 everyday preferences at baseline and again after 3 months.
02Sixteen preferences were endorsed by 90% or more residents as very or somewhat important.
03Using an important versus not important definition, 68 of 72 preferences had stable ratings of 70% or higher over 3 months.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The sample came from 28 suburban East Coast nursing homes and was mostly non-Hispanic Caucasian, so it may not apply to other regions, racial groups, or ethnic groups. Residents had to be English speaking, medically stable, and able to consent with a Mini-Mental State Examination score of at least 13, so more unstable or more cognitively impaired residents were not included. Attrition from baseline to 3 months was 25.4%, although participants who completed both waves were not significantly different from those who completed only baseline on age, race, education, or length of stay. The study followed residents for only 3 months, so it cannot show what happens to preferences over longer periods. The study did not examine how clinical attributes, environment, or how options are presented may affect preference ratings over time.
Declared interests
The authors report no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the 3-month stability as proof that preferences never change or that reassessment is unnecessary. The study followed residents for only 3 months, and exact agreement on the same importance rating averaged 58.55%, so residents did change their ratings.