Jaroslava Zimmermann and Holger Pfaff
University of Cologne, Germany
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Nurs Care
Statement of the Problem: Nursing care in Germany is faced with a radical change in quality report standards. Until now nursing home quality has been measured mostly on the basis of structural and care process criteria. By the year 2018, new quality indicators will be implemented by law that includes measures of resident outcomes. The results of this project should contribute to scientific discourse on quality reporting standards for German nursing homes. Theoretical Orientation: Using Donabedian�s structure-process-outcome framework (1988), we assumed that structural indicators of quality, such as staffing patterns, are associated with outcome indicators. In other words, sufficiency of structural resources in facilities is one of the most important pre-condition for good facility outcomes. Methodology: The data for this study came from the internal quality management of the Caritas Association and the pilot project EQisA, within which the indicators of nursing home outcomes were developed, validated and collected. The sample consisted of 221 German nursing homes which included data of over 22 thousand residents. For the investigation of relationship between nursing staffing levels and weight loss a logistic regression analysis was used. Findings: The analysis showed that resident-to-staff ratios were strong associated with weight loss of residents with low cognitive impairment also after model had been fully specified (by including facility size, region, urban/rural location of facility, resident acuity level). Conclusion & Significance: The findings indicated that lower rates of weight loss were associated with higher staffing levels of registered nurses and additional care staff. However, there are only a few studies in Germany that examine this kind of relationship. More research using a broader national sample of nursing facilities would be needed in this field.
Jaroslava Zimmermann completed her BA and MA in Sociology at Comenius-University, Bratislava, Slovakia. After her study, she worked as a Research Assistant at Institute of Medical Sociology, Health Services Research and Rehabilitation Science. This led her to continue her research on “Organizational backgrounds of nursing home quality, especially on staffing patterns and promotion of staff health”.
Journal of Nursing & Care received 4230 citations as per Google Scholar report
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