Abstract
Aim: The environmental scan aimed to deepen our understanding of the aged care work culture and to ascertain the readiness of the workers to advance towards team-based quality care provision.
Background: The workplace context was a high-care unit within a large residential aged care facility.
Methods: We used the Promoting Action on Research Implementation in Health Services (PARiHS) framework to assess workplace readiness via interviews, individual surveys and observation of practice.
Results: A profile of current culture emerged as mutually supportive and task focused, but at the same time lacking corporate team features of shared decision-making and feedback for practice improvement. However, latent within the frontline leaders and personal care staff, there was evidence of some embedded knowledge and capacity for corporate team performance.
Conclusions: This study has validated an evidence-based method for conducting environmental scanning in aged care, recommended before any major change is introduced.
Implications for nursing management: Environmental scanning helps gauge workforce capacity and limitations; this information can enable managers to capitalize on identified cultural strengths to fortify change and avoid pitfalls of personal and collective vulnerabilities. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Background: The workplace context was a high-care unit within a large residential aged care facility.
Methods: We used the Promoting Action on Research Implementation in Health Services (PARiHS) framework to assess workplace readiness via interviews, individual surveys and observation of practice.
Results: A profile of current culture emerged as mutually supportive and task focused, but at the same time lacking corporate team features of shared decision-making and feedback for practice improvement. However, latent within the frontline leaders and personal care staff, there was evidence of some embedded knowledge and capacity for corporate team performance.
Conclusions: This study has validated an evidence-based method for conducting environmental scanning in aged care, recommended before any major change is introduced.
Implications for nursing management: Environmental scanning helps gauge workforce capacity and limitations; this information can enable managers to capitalize on identified cultural strengths to fortify change and avoid pitfalls of personal and collective vulnerabilities. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 293-303 |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| Journal | Journal of Nursing Management |
| Volume | 21 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Mar 2013 |
| Externally published | Yes |