Introduction
A nursing home is a special nursing facility where the old, the mentally, and the physically challenged or handicapped people in society are taken care of. They also offer occupational and other rehabilitative therapies to people disabled through accidents or illness. Nursing homes are also sometimes referred to as rest homes or rehabilitation centers. They are either publicly owned or privately owned. Publicly owned are run and managed by the government. For a patient to qualify to be in a public nursing facility the state requires that the person should be below the poverty line and thus have no life savings or any asset. A nursing home whether public or private must have a licensed and registered nurse on a 24-hour basis.
The registered nurse heads a contingent of the highly trained workforce whose duty is to ensure that the occupants are well taken care of. Most public nursing homes are associated with certain public hospitals and are usually located within the hospital premises. There has been increasing pressure to separate nursing homes from the hospital’s premises to give a view to the residents that a nursing home is a separate entity from a hospital. Most residents especially those who at one time have been hospitalized, view nursing homes and especially those within the hospital premises as a continuation of their hospitalization process. This makes them hard to handle, as they develop negative attitudes towards these homes and they constantly urge to be taken to their original homes.
These nursing homes provide a range of services to their occupants. They provide services of nurses, nursing aides and assistants, physical, occupational, and speech therapists. Other services include specialist care and recreational facilities. However, these homes are understaffed. Most health workers shy away from their responsibility as it is professionally demanding.
Effects of a nursing home on one’s lifespan
Nursing homes cover nursing services for beneficiaries who require skilled nursing care or rehabilitation services following advancement in age, disability, due to accidents, or diseases leading to body impairment. Nursing facility beneficiary is those people who need daily experienced nursing care or other skilled rehabilitation services which can only be provided only on an inpatient basis. Through the provision of these services, the beneficiary’s lifespan is increased. (Ballinem2000).
Nursing homes can provide a short nursing facility or long nursing facilities. A short nursing facility may be offered in a hospital-based facility. Occupants of such facilities enjoy special treatments as they can access specialized care facilities from the hospitals. Most of the occupants are usually those affected by diseases, alcoholics, drug addictions, or those involved in accidents and upon healing, they return to their homes. Long nursing facilities are provided by nursing homes that take care of their occupants till their death. Most long-term nursing facilities provide custodial care to people who have physical or cognitive impairments. Both long and short nursing facilities help to increase the lifespan of their occupants. (Kartie2008).
Due to specialized personal care given by the nursing homes, almost no one can be able to pay for the services. Some deplete their resources on the often high costs of care. The government usually covers the continued stays in the nursing home for these individuals. To reduce the costs, people are provided with significant needs for long-term support and services with a variety of living arrangements. Many people can return to their own homes in the community where private nursing agencies may be able to provide live-in nurses to stay and work with patients in their own homes. (Kartie2008).
The need for nursing home facilities continues to increase as life expectancy continues to increase. Many people can live as many as 80 years. By this age, they are incapacitated to do anything without assistance. This results to pressure in public nursing care facilities that force people to return to their own homes in the community and search for alternative care in private nursing agencies that provide live-in nurses to stay and work with patients in their own homes.
Many families are faced with challenges of considering suitable living arrangements for those who are unable to live by themselves. The family needs to carefully look at many nursing homes in search of a good one with assisted living facilities having in mind the person’s ability to take care of themselves depending on their level of disability. Many families choose to have their elderly and loved parents spend their daytime at an adult daycare center.
Nursing homes especially those meant for aging people are managed and organized to create a more resident-centered environment. They are made in a way such that they are more home-like than hospital-like. The nursing units comprise a set of small rooms surrounding a common living room. This kind of setup gives the residents an impression of a real home. Residents are free to do as they wish as long as they do not offend others. They are free to decide when to wake up, what to eat and when to do it, and what they want to do during the day. (Kartie2008).
The staff that gives care to these households makes sure that the residents are kept busy by encouraging interactions among the residents and the surrounding community. These nursing homes get donations and assistance from the community and work hand in hand with well-established organizations such as Greenhouse nursing home, Pioneer Network, and the Eden alternative which works toward improving the welfare of the nursing homes and increasing the quality of life in these homes. Residents of these homes have access to their favorite pets that offer companionship resulting in a reduction of boredom thus reducing the chances of stress that comes as a result of being lonely. (Kartie2008).
Nursing homes provide resident-oriented care where nurses are assigned to particular patients and can develop a relationship with the individual resident. The residents are taken care of as a family. The caretaker becomes familiar with each resident and hence specific individual needs are given maximum attention, whether they are emotional, psychological, or medical. (Ballinem2000).
The results of research
Research has shown that residents who receive resident–oriented care experience a high quality of life than people under daycare. This is because the residents attract the nurse’s attention throughout. In case of emergencies, or where complications develop on resident patients due to their advancing age, instant attention is available due to the availability of specialized facilities and skilled, well-experienced resident nurses. A nursing home brings various people together who have the same needs or who require similar treatment. These people interact and socialize with one another, share experiences and engage in activities aimed at keeping them busy. This helps them dispel feelings of loneliness, boredom, and discontent. (Kartie2008)
In resident homes, several residents are assigned to one nurse who is responsible for the entire admission period of the resident. This creates a strong relationship between the resident and the nurse. The resident perceives the nurse as one of His or Her relatives and hence the residents feel as if they are at their own homes. Residents feel comfortable discussing various issues with their nurses who intern encourage communication between the residents and the management.
This information assists the management to implement more lasting results and decide on areas that require consideration. Daycare center produces less satisfied residents who are unwilling to disclose their secret information and as a result, decide not to share information at all. They lack someone they can trust they usually complain of loneliness and feelings of displacement. (Charles2003)
Daycare centers or home-based care, unlike nursing homes, lack essential life support facilities. Most of the occupants of a daycare center are elderly and frail people who are susceptible to unexpected and abrupt illnesses like heart failure. In case of an emergency, the patient is not well taken care of and in some cases where illness is fatal they end up losing the patient. Modern nursing homes are equipped with up-to-date state-of-the-art machines like life-sustaining machines that can quickly diagnose the patient and recommend the necessary remedial measures to be taken.
Residential nursing homes also offer their residents various sporting activities which are prescribed by the resident nurses to various groups according to their levels of capabilities, sex, and age. Sporting activities help to make their bodies more active, healthy, and fit. They also make them socialize and hence bring them together which makes them view themselves as one family. These activities tend to increase the quality of one’s life hence increasing their lifespan. (Taylor2000).
A good nursing home is assessed based on structure, process, and outcome. Structure refers to the instruments and facilities of care available and their organization. A nursing home is geared towards providing care to its residents and therefore should have the necessary instruments depending on the nature of the residents living there. The assessment of the instrumentalities of care and their organization is very important.
The process refers to the quality of how care is given. In nursing homes care is given by qualified residential nurses who provide 24-hour attention to their residents. Nurses spend most of their time with the residents and hence they can give maximum care. The outcome is usually specified and measured in terms of health, the well-being of the residents, and their satisfaction. Residents who experience resident oriented care can live longer due to the care given to them compared to those people with the same conditions and are out of nursing homes (Kartie2008)
Nursing homes in form of rehabilitation centers are special homes used to rehabilitate those people whose behaviors have deviated from the norm and they require being isolated from society for some time to reform. The residents of these homes include alcoholics and drug addicts and street children. These people are usually put under home-based care in nursing homes with special facilities depending on the intended behavior change. These homes have trained residential nurse on 24-hour bases who takes care of the residents. Residents in these homes require a lot of counseling, psychological therapy, and reinforce behavioral change. (Christine 2001).
These homes collect and bring together people from different parts of the world, with different religions, beliefs, cultures, languages, and ways of living. These people interact, share ideas regarding their problems, and to some extent formulate for themselves remedies to their problems with the help of the resident nurse. The residents are usually given drugs aimed at helping them reduce the number of drugs or alcohol in their blood. Nursing homes through management can source resource people who are experts in these fields to offer the required assistance to the residents. These experts are also able to give specialized and individualized counseling to the residents. (Kartie2008).
They are taught of the immense dangers of alcohol and drugs, their long-term effects on their bodies. Most drug addicts are usually withdrawn and antisocial. They feel neglected and deserted.most of them, if not well taken care of ending up committing suicide. Residents are taught various trades which equips them with the necessary skills to enable them to earn a living once out of rehabilitation center. Once these people reform, they become productive and contribute towards the development of society. This increases their quality of life as well as prolonging their lifespan. (Taylor2000).
Conclusion
There is a continued increase in the number of people who become disabled through accidents and diseases. These people require special care till they heal. Some of them become disabled throughout their life. These people require experts to help them to adjust psychologically, accept and appreciate their new living conditions. They also require to be shown various new ways of doing things depending on their level of disability. They require to be taught various jobs that they can be able to do to earn their income. All these requirements can only be realized in a nursing home.
Considering the above argument, it can be concluded that, nursing homes with qualified and experienced staff, coupled with all the necessary tools and equipment not only increases the quality of life of the residents but also increases their survival chances. (Taylor2000).
References
Ballinem, G. (2000). Nursing Home For Aged, London: Abingdon, oxford shire, pp. 112-169.
Kartie, D. (2008). The life of the aged people, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Charles K. (2003) How to prolong life for the aged: Oxford University Press London.
Christine W. (2001). How the old can live happily: Chicago University Press. Chicago.
Taylor and Francis. (2000). How the old people can live longer: Prentice Hall.