Development of a self-scan to evaluate and improve person-centered care in nursing homes: A Delphi study

Abstract

Background and objective: Person centered care (PCC) has become the gold standard for providing care in nursing homes (NHs). Therefore, it is important for healthcare professionals in NHs to learn PCC-skills and to be supported to learn about- and improve the quality of PCC they provide. At this moment an instrument to support healthcare professionals in NHs to monitor and evaluate PCC is limited. The aim of the study was to develop a self-evaluation tool that provides healthcare professionals in NHs insight into the extent to which they provide PCC to residents, so that they can learn and further improve their current ways of working in a person-centered way.

Methods: A three-round Delphi study with an expert panel (n = 25) in the domains of PCC, quality of NH care and education of caring staff. Findings were validated by residents and relatives during semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis and descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data.

Results: In the first round the experts did not provide measuring instruments, but we identified 18 key aspects of PCC. In the second round, three clusters were identified, and a scale was added, to enable assessment. In the third round, we deduplicated, restructured and used more clear language. This led to 14 key aspects of PCC, 24 measures, grouped into five clusters: knowing the resident, establishing relationship, a respectful approach, making decisions jointly and personal development. The result is a PCC self-scan for healthcare professionals in NHs. Residents and relatives, agreed with all aspects and stated that no aspects were missing.

Conclusions: In this study we developed an accessible self-report learning tool for healthcare professionals that makes it possible to evaluate and improve their PCC-skills and improve the quality of PCC in NHs.