Nursing Home Facilities: A Solution for Long-Term Care
Introduction
Nursing home facilities offer a unique setting for long-term care of elderly persons. Serving as places of residence where the elderly person can obtain assistance with daily living and with medical needs, the nursing home acts exactly as its name suggests—as a home wherein nursing care is provided on a daily basis. This paper will describe the setting of the nursing home, where it falls on the long-term care continuum, how family and friends can play a supportive role, what the role of public relations is in the nursing home, and how oversight of the nursing home is provided by government or other organizational agencies.
Setting
Long-Term Care Continuum
The nursing home typically falls at the end of the long-term care continuum spectrum. This spectrum can include four stages: 1) aging in place, which consists of self-care, home support, and adult day care; 2) adult foster care, which consists of non-medical care in a family-style residence; 3) assisted living, which consists of a congregated care residence with medical support on an as-needed basis; and finally 4) institutional care, which consists of nursing homes with medical care support. While there is no need for adults to pass through the first three stages before arriving at the final stage of nursing home care in the long-term care continuum, it is not uncommon to see such progression. Nursing home care provides a solution for long-term care because it offers the setting conducive to each of the first three settings while supportive of the medical needs of the final two settings. While Rowles and Teaster (2015) point out that nursing homes can act as short-term care settings for rehabilitation, they more generally serve as long-term residences for elderly persons in need of nursing care.
Nursing homes can serve as rehabilitative centers for post-acute care patients who required rehabilitative treatment. However, as Sanford et al. (2015) point out, “it is important to distinguish between short-term care provided after an acute hospitalization, often called subacute care, post-acute care, or skilled nursing care, and care provided on a long-term basis” (p. 182). Subacute and post-acute are typically provided in different settings—often in the geriatric unit of a hospital. A nursing home is most often used as a setting for long-term care in which assistance is needed with daily living and with the instruments needed for daily living, as well as geriatrics suffering from behavioral illnesses such as dementia or Alzheimer’s (Sanford et al., 2015). The nursing home focuses on providing a safe, stable, supportive environment for long-term care of elderly residents.
The Support of Family and Friends
In this setting, it is helpful to have the support of family and friends. Friends, family and others can offer their support of the elderly person in a nursing home by making frequent visits, spending time with the person, checking the person out for short excursions (if permitted by the rules of the nursing home...…consist of a representative of the state or federal government inspecting the facility. A report on the condition of the facility is then written based on the observations drawn from the survey, and the report indicates whether the nursing home is in compliance with the laws. This survey is conducted once a year but for nursing homes that routinely violate laws and suffer from non-compliance they can occur multiple times a year. Penalties and fines can be levied against nursing homes that fail to meet regulations, and they can be closed if they continue to fail to comply with state or federal law. The purpose of this oversight is to protect the patient residents and to ensure that they receive the same kind of quality care that they would expect from a regulated hospital.
Conclusion
The nursing home facility is a solution for long-term care because it provides a stable living environment for elderly persons who require daily assistance with standard living needs and medical needs. Nursing homes are often used for elderly persons who suffer from dementia or Alzheimer’s, as these can be especially difficult issues for care providers within the family to handle on their own. The nursing home offers 24-hour professional care and knowledge that most families are unable to provide. By placing an elderly person in a nursing home, care that meets both state and federal guidelines can be expected and families and friends can still provide support through frequent visits to the resident.…
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