Abstract

ALEIXO, Telmo; ESCOVAL, Ana; FONTES, Rui  and  FONSECA, César. Quality indicators for sensitive care in nursing homes for older people. Rev. Enf. Ref. [online]. 2011, vol.serIII, n.3, pp.141-149. ISSN 0874-0283.

The population is aging not only in Portugal but also worldwide. Nursing homes provide their users with services according to their needs. Thus, these institutions must be equipped with specialized human resources in health care, such as Nursing. Objective: To identify a sensitive nursing care set of quality indicators. Methodology: The research was carried out via EBSCO (CINAHL Plus with Full Text, MEDLINE with Full Text, British Nursing Index). Scientific articles published in full text (28-01-2009) between 1998/01/01 and 2008/12/31 were searched for. We used the PI[C]O method and selected twelve articles from a total of one hundred and thirty eight. Results: In this literature review, in the international context fourteen quality care indicators in nursing homes were identified and we selected a set of assessment tools to evaluate quality. Conclusion: Nurses make an important contribution to improving quality in the organizations described. The results show that the continuing introduction of these professionals has a direct impact on reducing the use of health services (emergency and hospital days), reducing the number of falls, on the prevalence of the number of pressure ulcers and on increasing functioning and pain management.

Keywords : nursing homes; quality indicators; health care; outcomes.

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