Relocation of the aggressive nursing home resident

Abstract

Disruptive behavior of nursing home residents is a serious problem. One such disruptive behavior-aggression toward caregivers in a long-term care setting where all residents in one unit were being relocated is thefocus of the study. Recent research indicates that aggressive behavior leads to isolation of the aggressive resident and increases stress of the caregiver No one, however has studied what happens to the behavioraftersuch a resident is relocated The purpose of the study was to see if relocation affects the frequency and nature of aggressive behavior in any way. I studied 12 aggressive residents three months pre- and post-relocation. These residents were relocated with the same caregivers. Six of the 12 residents were receiving psychotropic drugs, and this drug use did not change during or after the move. The mean number of separate incident reports decreased after the relocation; however, thisfinding was statistically in-significant. Additionally, whereas some subjects in-creased their aggressive activity after the move, others decreased it. Aggressive behavior occurred more often in the day shift, confirming the findings of earlier studies.