Building a Bridge to Improve Self-Care Independence Among Long-Term Care Facilities Residents: From the Staff Caregiver Perspective

Background: Staff caregivers in long-term care facilities constitute an important factor affecting residents’ behavioral dependency in self-care performance. Few studies have focused on what staff caregivers should do or how they should go about improving the self-care independence among residents living in long-term care facilities.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to understand the perspectives of staff caregivers on how to build a bridge aimed at improving self-care independence among residents living in long-term care facilities.

Methods: This study used a qualitative approach to gain a deeper understanding of how staff caregivers do to build a bridge aimed at improving self-care independence among residents living in long-term care facilities. This study used a purposive sampling method. Date was collected via face to face interviews with 31 staff caregivers who were working in long-term care facilities in Taiwan.

Results: Results showed that to build a bridge aimed at improving self-care independence among residents living in long-term care facilities, staff caregivers indicated three major elements: (1) setting goals with residents, families and staff caregivers, (2) building trust between families of residents and staff caregivers, and (3) staff caregivers should report residents’ conditions to family members voluntarily. Results also showed that three major factors which are crucial to building a bridge between families of residents and staff caregivers: (1) prior discussion, (2) building trust, and (3) reporting conditions of residents voluntarily.

Conclusion/Clinical Implication: Results of this study provide important information for academia, long-term care facility‘s administrators and caregivers on how staff and family caregivers should work together to reach a mutual goal, which is to improve residents’ self-care ability.