"Are we there yet?": Ascertaining prevalence of person centered care and barriers to it in long term care settings for older people as reported by registered nurses

Aim: To ascertain the prevalence of person centered care in long term care settings for older people, its relationship to the demographic characteristics of the nurses and determine the barriers to it as reported by registered... [ view full abstract ]

Aim: To ascertain the prevalence of person centered care in long term care settings for older people, its relationship to the demographic characteristics of the nurses and determine the barriers to it as reported by registered nurses.

Background: Person centered care is a holistic approach to care that looks at the person as a whole, the core tenets being personalized care, organisational support and care environment. The research on prevalence and barriers to person centered care in long-term care settings in Ireland, from the nurses’ point of view, is scarce despite the recent emphasis on person centered care.

Design: The study employed a mainly quantitative descriptive design with an emphasis on describing prevalence and barriers to person centered care.

Methods: The study was conducted on registered nurses in 14 selected long term care settings for older people using a 3-part questionnaire incorporating Person- centered Care Assessment Tool (P-CAT), a self-developed demographic questionnaire and an open ended question asking to list barriers to provision of person centered care(N=108, Response rate 42%). Data was analysed using SPSS; descriptive and correlational statistics were used to analyse data. Thematic content analysis was used for the barriers section.

Results: Overall person centered care is prevalent in the studied organisations (Mean=47.25, SD=7.86) and is affected by female gender (t=-2.05, p=.04), greater age(r=.38, p=.00) and years of experience of the nurses in older people’s care (t=-4.43, p=.00). Nurses perceive the prevalence of the core elements of person centered care namely personalized care (Mean=25.90, SD=5.14), Organisational support (Mean=14.28, SD=2.87) and the Care environment (Mean=7.06, SD=1.29). Age, gender and years of experience of the nurses affect personalized care and organisational support but no demographic variables affect the care environment. The major barriers found are lack of time, heavy workload and poor staffing levels.

Conclusion: The pioneering, multi-site study ascertained prevalence and barriers to person centred care reported by registered nurses in Ireland, thereby adding to the knowledge base in the area and finding areas improving clinical practice as well as research.