Clinical MethodNursing home recruitment: Trials, tribulations, and successes
Section snippets
Introduction to the study
The purpose of this study was to assess the education and learning needs of nursing home nurses (registered nurses and licensed practical nurses) in central Illinois and related resident outcomes. The goal was the recruitment of 50 nursing homes according to a proportionate stratified random sample. The sample consisted of staff nurses as well as administrative nurses. Recruitment letters were mailed to the administrators of the identified nursing homes by the principal investigator (PI). Two
Organizational and administrative barriers
Initial contact and communication with the nursing homes was the largest barrier to obtaining an adequate sample. Many administrators did not return calls to the research assistants. Various individuals answered the phone and messages were left with them. In addition, research assistants were told the administrator was in a meeting, or serving lunch. When the administrators did take the call from the research assistants, they were hesitant to agree to be in the study, citing lack of
Ethical issues
The nursing home population is a captive and very convenient sample for data collection. Older adults who reside in nursing homes are vulnerable in research due to their frailty, functional losses, and institutional environment (Maas et al., 2002). Even though the staff and administrative nurses were our focus in the study, we had to be aware of the ethical issues that are present in the nursing home population.
Ethical issues studied and reviewed by Cleary (2004) involved primarily resident
Successes and strategies for nursing home recruitment
Nursing home researchers need familiarity with the nursing home environment, including knowledge of federal and state regulations, familiarity with nursing home culture, and awareness of policies and routines. This familiarity can become highly important for the execution of a study.
By far the biggest success in access to nursing homes for our study was personal contact. When the research assistant had a familiarity or professional relationship with the administrator or DON, researchers were
Conclusion
Nursing home elders are typically underrepresented in research due to research barriers and ethical issues. This study identified organizational, administrative, and staff barriers. Ethical issues identified in this study included IRB involvement and the possibility of witnessing resident abuse while collecting data. Mistrust of the research process may have hindered access to a number of facilities identified for this study. Face to face contact was the most helpful strategy gaining access to
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