Registered nurses' experience of delegating the administration of medicine to unlicensed personnel in residential care homes.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVE: The aim was to describe registered nurses' experience in the context of delegating the administration of medication to unlicensed personnel in residential care homes. BACKGROUND: The residents in residential care homes have a need for extensive care and nursing, and large amounts of medicines are common practice. Registered nurses' workload and difficulties in fulfilling their duties, such as administration of medicines, have led to frequent delegation of this task between the registered nurses and unlicensed assisting personnel. It is, of course, a great responsibility to ensure that the care of the older people remains safe while maintaining quality in the prevailing situation. DESIGN: A qualitative inductive descriptive study. METHODS: Data were collected using audio-recorded semistructured interviews with a purposive sample of 18 registered nurses and interpreted using manifest content analysis. The study was approved by the ethical research committee. RESULTS: Registered nurses found the organisation unsupportive with regard to nursing interventions. The delegation context was experienced as a grey zone; the rules and regulations were not in line with the unspoken expectation to delegate the administration of medicine to unlicensed personnel, in order to be able to manage their daily work. CONCLUSIONS: The slimmed organisation of residential care homes relies upon registered nurses' use of delegation of medicine administration to unlicensed assistant personnel. It becomes an inevitable assignment entailing a challenging responsibility for patient safety and the quality of care. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: The results of this study may contribute to a better understanding of the complexity of caring for older people in residential care homes and to improving the work environment of all healthcare personnel.

Like a bridge over troubled water - a qualitative study of professional caregiver singing and music as a way to enable person-centred care for persons with dementia.

Purpose: To describe the perspectives of caregivers in terms of using singing and music in their everyday work, and of their effect on care and interaction with the person with dementia.Methods: A qualitative design was used, consisting of group discussions with professional caregivers from three nursing homes in a medium-sized city in a rural area of Sweden.Results: The results demonstrate that caregiver singing and music can be powerful and useful in the care of and in communication with persons with dementia. Music, for example, can be used to facilitate socialization as it opens up for discussion, while caregiver singing was preferable when it came to the facilitation of care situations and interaction.Conclusions: Singing and music can be powerful and useful tools in the care of and in communication with persons with dementia. Regardless of whether singing or music is used, the most important factor is that a person-centred approach is adopted so as to make the music a facilitative tool. Caregiver singing and music are ways to connect with the person with dementia and an understanding of their use can contribute to dementia research. This in turn can increase awareness of the possible ways to strengthen the partnership between caregivers and persons with dementia.

Unlicensed personnel administering medications to older persons living at home: a challenge for social and care services.

BACKGROUND: Administration of medication to care recipients is delegated to home-care assistants working in the municipal social care, alongside responsibility for providing personal assistance for older people. Home-care assistants have practical administration skills, but lack formal medical knowledge. AIM: The aim of this study was to explore how home-care assistants perceive administration of medication to older people living at home, as delegated to them in the context of social care. METHODS: Four focus groups consisting of 19 home-care assistants were conducted. Data were analysed using qualitative content analysis. RESULTS: According to home-care assistants, health and social care depends on delegation arrangements to function effectively, but in the first place it relieves a burden for district nurses. Even when the delegation had expired, administration of medication continued, placing the statutes of regulation in a subordinate position. There was low awareness among home-care assistants about the content of the statutes of delegation. Accepting delegation to administer medications has become an implicit prerequisite for social care work in the municipality. CONCLUSIONS: Accepting the delegation to administer medication was inevitable and routine. In practice, the regulating statute is made subordinate and consequently patient safety can be threatened. The organisation of health and social care relies on the delegation arrangement to meet the needs of a growing number of older home-care recipients. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: This is a crucial task which management within both the healthcare professions and municipal social care needs to address, to bridge the gap between statutes and practice, to create arenas for mutual collaboration in the care recipients' best interest and to ensure patient safety.