Frontline caregivers: does consistent assignment make a difference in nursing home resident care?

Thesis (M.A., Special Major (Administration and Management for Older Adults)) -- California State University, Sacramento, 2010.By the year 2030, America may have over one million centenarians. The issue of delivering quality nursing home care to the elderly population is becoming critical and greatly dependent on the frontline nursing staff. Since 1997, there has been a national ???culture change??? movement that has identified consistent assignment as a cornerstone practice of its advocacy. The review of the literature examines staff assignment and its correlation for improving quality indicators in nursing home care. Regulatory bodies require nursing homes to report certain objectively measurable data to aid rating the quality of care. The purpose of this study is to examine a nursing home that uses consistent assignment compared with a rotating assignment nursing home and its effect on staff turnover, resident restraint use and frequency of pressure ulcers. Data obtained from the Medicare and OSHPD websites were used for examining the two nursing homes selected. The data presented lower percentages overall for the nursing home using consistent assignment protocols, which can translate into improved Medicare quality rating. This study, due to the small sample size and with the absence of raw data could not draw any statistical correlation between consistent assignment and improved nursing home care among the three quality indicators examined.Special Major (Administration and Management for Older Adults