Sara Clemens
University of Toronto
Canada
Title: Determining the Relationship between Nursing and Personal Care Staffing Characteristics and Quality Outcomes in Ontario Long-Term Care Homes
Biography
Biography: Sara Clemens
Abstract
Recently, the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) funded a systematic review of long-term care (LTC) that concluded “future Canadian research exploring the relationship between nurse staffing and outcomes in LTC settings is an urgent priority.” This research study seeks to understand this relationship in the Ontario context by employing a rigorous mixed-methods research design. A quantitative cross-sectional descriptive study of Ontario’s LTC population will be conducted first, using hierarchical linear regression to determine the relationship between four home-level nursing and personal care staffing characteristics and four resident-level risk-adjusted nursing and personal care sensitive quality indicators. The four home-level nursing and personal care staffing characteristics used in this study are staffing level, staff mix, skills and competencies as well as roles and responsibilities. The four resident-level quality indicators, obtained from a province-wide Resident Assessment Instrument Minimum Data Set (RAI MDS) are incidents of pain, falls, incontinence and pressure ulcers. A subsequent qualitative case study of Ontario’s five highest and five lowest performing LTCHs will provide insights into how LTCHs may successfully modify nursing and personal care staffing characteristics to best meet the ever-increasing and complex care needs of LTC residents.