Concerns about the quality of nursing home care continue to mount even with increased regulations and efforts to improve the quality of care for older persons. Insufficient research is available to clearly guide recommendations for nursing staff numbers and skill mix that are associated with quality outcomes. Yet, the relationship of numbers and types of nursing staffing to some outcomes that are highly important to residents' well-being, such as weight loss and dehydration, have been minimally studied. A cross-sectional correlational secondary analysis of the Long Term Care Minimum Data Set (MDS) and Online Survey and Certification and Reporting (OSCAR) will be used to determine the unique and total proportion of variance in weight loss and dehydration explained by the number of nursing home staff hours per resident day, skill mix, resident risk factors, external and internal nursing home characteristics. A representative sample of 300 nursing homes will be selected from Health Care Financing Administration Region V (Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota). Hierarchical Linear Modeling will be used to investigate the research questions. The focus of the analysis is on the nursing homes, but the impact of resident characteristics on the outcomes of interest will be taken into account as well.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR)
Type
Predoctoral Individual National Research Service Award (F31)
Project #
5F31NR007824-02
Application #
6654465
Study Section
National Institute of Nursing Research Initial Review Group (NRRC)
Program Officer
Bakos, Alexis D
Project Start
2002-09-01
Project End
2004-08-31
Budget Start
2003-09-01
Budget End
2004-08-31
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
2003
Total Cost
$25,367
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Iowa
Department
Type
Schools of Nursing
DUNS #
062761671
City
Iowa City
State
IA
Country
United States
Zip Code
52242
Dyck, Mary J (2007) Nursing staffing and resident outcomes in nursing homes: weight loss and dehydration. J Nurs Care Qual 22:59-65
Dyck, Mary J; Culp, Kennith; Cacchione, Pamela Z (2007) Data quality strategies in cohort studies: lessons from a study on delirium in nursing home elders. Appl Nurs Res 20:39-43