Abstract
Background
Worldwide, there is an increase in the number of older adults (60+ years) paired with an increasing demand for long-term care services (Smith & Feng, 2010; World Health Organization, 2015). Nursing homes aim to care for the most frail and dependent older adults in society, by providing 24-hr functional support and care for people with complex health needs, increased vulnerability, and who need support with activities of daily living (Sanford et al., 2015). Nursing home characteristics differ between and within countries; for example, some only provide long-term care, whereas others may also provide short-term rehabilitation care.
There is a wide variety in the quality of care between nursing homes (OECD/EU, 2013). This can partially be explained by the strain on resources due to an increase in aging population, increasing complexity of residents’ care needs, challenges in staff composition, and funding (Comondore et al., 2009; Hicks et al., 2004; Miller et al., 2010; Nakrem et al., 2011; Zimmerman et al., 2014). However, in addition, residents have different expectations of living in a nursing home due to the culture change from task-oriented to person- and relationship-centered care (Koren, 2010). Person-centered care focuses on residents being unique with their own needs, preferences, and relationships, which henceforth contributes to quality of care (Koren, 2010; Nakrem, 2015).
Whereas quality of care in nursing homes is traditionally assessed with clinical indicators, such as falling incidents or pressure ulcers, the culture shift has resulted in the need to assess social and emotional indicators of care too, such as perceived care experiences and resident satisfaction (Castle & Ferguson, 2010; Zimmerman et al., 2014). These outcomes are usually assessed with closed-end questionnaires that are often completed by residents’ proxies if residents have cognitive impairment and difficulty communicating; however, proxies do not always know what matters most to their loved ones (Castle, 2005; Reamy et al., 2011; Triemstra et al., 2010). To assess and improve quality of care, there is a need to understand residents’ care experiences by having in-depth conversations with the residents themselves (LaVela & Gallan, 2014; Wolf et al., 2014).
Previous qualitative research has focused on specific residents’ experiences such as transitions to the nursing home or the mealtime experience (Richards & Hagger, 2011; Watkins et al., 2017). A recent review identified seven qualitative studies of residents’ experiences of being cared for in nursing homes (Vaismoradi et al., 2016). The main findings related to residents wanting to retain the meaning of being alive in a homelike place that delivers person-centered care. This review was narrowed to the concept “being cared for” and recommended future reviews on residents’ experiences to include a broader spectrum of concepts as experienced quality of care is a process that can be influenced by multiple concepts. Therefore, the aim of this systematic review was to identify which factors contribute to experienced quality of care in nursing homes worldwide from the resident’s perspective.
Method
This systematic review and synthesis of qualitative research was reported according to the Enhancing Transparency in Reporting the Synthesis of Qualitative Research (ENTREQ) statement (Tong et al., 2012).
Databases and Search Strategy
In April 2019, PubMed, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), PsycInfo, and Business Source Complete were searched and snowballing was performed by checking reference lists of key articles. The search strategy combined three key terms and their synonyms: “experienced quality of care” AND “resident perspective” AND “nursing home”. The search string for PubMed (Box 1) was adapted accordingly for each database (full searches are available on request). A predefined filter for qualitative studies and filters for scientific articles published in English or Dutch were added (Flemming & Briggs, 2007; Health Sciences Library University of Washington, 2019).
Search String PubMed.
Eligibility Criteria and Study Selection
Table 1 presents the predefined selection criteria. Qualitative studies reporting themes related to experienced quality of care in nursing homes, from the resident’s perspective, were eligible for inclusion. Themes needed to be identified bottom-up from the collected data. Studies focusing on only one factor of experienced quality of care such as the transition to the nursing home or the mealtime experience were excluded as these studies go into too little detail about the overall experienced quality of care.
Selection Criteria.
All titles and abstracts were screened by one researcher and a second researcher independently screened 10% to confirm consistency and refine the selection criteria (96% agreement). Full texts were screened by two researchers and discrepancies were solved by discussing with a third researcher to reach consensus.
Data Extraction and Quality Appraisal
Data extraction and quality appraisal were performed by one researcher and checked by a second researcher. The following information was extracted from the studies in a pre-developed template: the aim, population description, sample size and selection, setting, data collection and analysis methods, and the themes in the results. Included articles were critically appraised using a checklist to assess qualitative studies (Bunn et al., 2008). Articles were scored sufficient = 1 or insufficient = 0 on eight criteria, the total score ranging from 0 to 8. These criteria are (a) scope and purpose (clear statement of the research question), (b) design and method (appropriate use of qualitative methods), (c) sample (clear description of sample), (d) data collection (adequate description of data collection methods), (e) analysis (analytic methods are made explicit), (f) reliability and validity (presents how categories/themes are developed), (g) generalizability (limits for generalizability clearly stated), and (h) credibility and plausibility (results and conclusions are supported by evidence; Bunn et al., 2012). The research team decided to only include studies with a quality appraisal score ≥4 for data synthesis as the quality of the findings may otherwise be unreliable.
Data Synthesis
Thematic synthesis was used to analyze the results from each identified study (Thomas & Harden, 2008). This three-step inductive approach identifies common data elements across a variety of studies (Lucas et al., 2007). First, the results section from each study was openly coded line by line, enabling the researchers to translate concepts from one study to another. The themes identified by the authors and quotations from the original studies presented in the results sections were considered as data. Second, these codes were categorized into descriptive themes from which a tree structure emerged. Finally, the descriptive themes were translated into the final analytical themes, subthemes, and categories to answer the research question. Supportive quotes were added to clarify each subtheme. Analyses were performed in MAXQDA by two researchers (“MAXQDA, software for qualitative data analysis,” 1989–2020).
Results
The literature search identified 3,151 publications, of which 2,561 were reviewed based on title and abstract, and 207 on full text. As a result, 25 publications were included and two additional publications were identified through snowballing, a technique for reference review. Therefore, this literature review included 27 relevant publications covering 26 original studies for data extraction and quality appraisal (Figure 1).

Flow-chart study selection.
Study Design and Quality Appraisal
This review includes the experiences of 578 residents living in 93 nursing homes in 14 countries. Table 2 presents the characteristics of the included studies. One study was reported in two publications with a different focus (Nakrem et al., 2011, 2013). Studies were performed in Europe (eight studies), Asia (eight studies), North America (six studies), Australia (three studies), and South America (one study). Studies ranged from five to 96 participants living in one (eight studies) to 19 (one study) long-term care facilities. Each study aimed to explore residents’ experiences and views on quality of care and/or needs. All studies performed interviews with residents and some performed additional observations (seven studies) or group interviews (two studies). Most only included residents who were cognitively capable to be interviewed (16 studies), a few deliberately included residents with cognitive impairment (three studies), and some were unclear about this (seven studies).
Characteristics of Included Studies.
Note. MMSE = Mini-Mental State Examination; NR = not reported.
This review only presents the information related to the residents.
A majority of the studies were of high quality, scoring 6 to 8 points (20 studies). Two scored 3 points (Evangelista et al., 2014; Timonen & O’Dwyer, 2009) and were excluded from the thematic synthesis. The supplemental table, Supplement 1, presents the detailed results of the quality appraisal.
Thematic Synthesis
Across the 25 publications (24 studies), analysis revealed three overarching themes related to residents’ care experiences: the nursing home environment, the individual aspects of living in the nursing home, and social engagement. These themes were divided into six subthemes that covered 17 categories as presented in Table 3.
Identified Themes and Categories Related to Residents’ Experiences in the Nursing Home.
The nursing home environment
The nursing home environment consisted of the physical environment (19 studies) and the caring environment (24 studies). In the physical environment, nursing home characteristics (13 studies), such as space, noise, odor, and cleanliness, and the availability of facilities, such as on-site shops and a restaurant, were mentioned repeatedly and a few studies mentioned accessibility and affordability. In addition, sufficient resources (14 studies) were considered a prerequisite for a good care experience. Residents specifically stressed having sufficient staff with low turnover rates and staff having enough time to attend to residents’ needs in a timely manner.
In the caring environment, residents’ needs for feeling at home (14 studies), receiving privacy (14 studies), feeling safe (14 studies), and having a daily routine (22 studies) were reported. Some studies highlighted the challenges of residents living together in a public facility. Residents stressed the importance of making the nursing home a home in which they could feel comfortable. Having access to their own personally furnished and decorated rooms contributed to this as residents receive the option to withdraw from the communal setting to their own space. Residents also specifically mentioned their need for privacy. Some reported a loss of privacy in the nursing home, whereas others reported accepting the lack of privacy as it enhanced their feelings of security. In half the studies, residents addressed the importance of their sense of security. This was accomplished by assuring residents that 24/7 help is available and providing them the opportunity to lock their doors, to avoid people stealing from them or other residents entering when not being welcome. Many studies addressed daily routines, either as residents having the freedom to structure their days as they wished or experiencing monotony in their days and feeling limited by rules and regulations. Meaningful activities tailored to residents’ preferences were considered very important to decrease boredom and enhance residents’ sense of purpose. Some specific activities mentioned were religious/spiritual activities, outings outside of the nursing home, mealtimes, and visits from loved ones.
Individual aspects of living in the nursing home
The individual aspects of living in the nursing home consisted of personhood (25 studies) and coping with change (20 studies). Personhood was addressed in all studies as maintaining identity, maintaining dignity, and/or having self-determination. Residents valued being able to maintain their identity and being treated as individuals with their own preferences and needs (13 studies). Maintaining dignity by being respected and valued was also considered important (22 studies). In addition, gaining self-determination and autonomy in the nursing home contributed to personhood by providing residents with choice and involving them in decision-making (23 studies). Residents also struggled with becoming more dependent on others.
Studies reported that residents were coping with getting older and living in the nursing home (17 studies). Whereas many residents experienced deteriorating health and some expressed wanting this to improve, most accepted the situation and some even experienced improved health since living in the nursing home. A few studies touched upon the topic of coping with end of life (eight studies) and that living in the nursing home felt as waiting for the end. Some addressed specific aspects, including fear of death, reflection on life, funeral arrangements, and coping with death of other residents.
Social engagement
Social engagement consisted of having meaningful relationships (24 studies) and how care is provided by staff (23 studies). In their relationships with staff (22 studies), some residents preferred a family-oriented approach, going beyond care and toward friendship, whereas others preferred a service-oriented approach focused on receiving proper care. Some studies stressed that residents did not want to be considered as a burden to staff and henceforth making themselves subservient. Studies reporting on relationships with friends and family (17 studies) mostly mentioned residents’ desires to maintain long-term relationships and have meaningful social interactions that contribute to their sense of belonging. Some experienced difficulty maintaining their relationships or even felt neglected by their relatives. Forming friendships with other residents (16 studies) and having valuable meaningful social interactions added to feelings of self-worth and identity according to multiple studies. Some, however, mentioned the lack of meaningful social interactions because of the challenges of interacting with people with cognitive impairments and the lack of choice who resides in the nursing home.
Care provision is an interactive and reciprocal act. Studies reporting on the care provided by staff highlighted the importance of a tailored care approach adapted to the care needs of each individual resident (14 studies). Many residents expected staff to possess the right technical skills to provide proper care (17 studies). Equally important for the care experience were staff’s emotional skills (17 studies), such as caring skills (trust, engagement, and encouragement), emotional support, and adopting a good attitude toward the residents.
Discussion
This review identified three main factors in each included study contributing to experienced quality of care in nursing homes from the resident’s perspective: environment, individual aspects, and social engagement. The nursing home environment consisted of both the physical environment and caring environment. Individual aspects of living in the nursing home consisted of residents wanting to maintain their personhood and personal self, and their need to cope with change. Social engagement consisted of residents wanting to have meaningful relationships and the way staff provides care.
Our findings that the nursing home environment contributes to experienced quality of care is in line with other research, emphasizing the importance of the physical environment on residents’ behaviors and well-being (Chaudhury et al., 2018). The sociocultural, professional, governmental, and organizational environment can support maintaining personhood (Siegel et al., 2014). This is achieved by residents feeling in control of their own life and feeling that they matter, by being recognized and valued as stated in the Senses Framework (Nolan et al., 2006; Oosterveld-Vlug et al., 2013). To increase quality of care and personhood, professional caregivers need to develop meaningful relationships with residents, family members, and colleagues (McCormack et al., 2012). The quality of care relationships are characterized on the resident level, professional level, interaction between resident and professional level, and contextual level and can be used to gain insight into how relationships influence care provision and the resident’s personhood (Scheffelaar, Bos et al., 2018; Smebye & Kirkevold, 2013).
People with dementia should more often be included in studies about experiences. Only three studies explicitly included this population. People with dementia or aphasia may be limited to verbally express themselves or find it challenging recalling on past experiences; however, future studies should adopt an inclusive design by using a tailored approach for this population by, for example, using supportive visuals or observations (Alzheimer’s Disease International, 2015; Curyto et al., 2008; Gardner et al., 1976; Scheffelaar, Hendriks, et al., 2018; Stans et al., 2013; Whitlatch, 2001). A recent review explored self-reported needs and experiences of people with dementia in nursing homes (Shiells et al., 2019). This is complementary to our review as it included qualitative and quantitative studies and focused on experiences, quality of life, and well-being expressed by people with dementia. The identified themes were similar to our findings, focusing on tailored activities, meaningful relationships, choice, environment, end of life, and reminiscence. Reminiscence, defined as opportunities to share memories with others, was not identified explicitly in the current review because it might be more related to well-being and quality of life.
Some methodological issues should be considered. The relatively high number of included studies performed in a variety of countries contributes to the generalizability of the findings from this review, especially as no major differences were identified between countries. This should, however, be done cautiously as there is a large variety in types of nursing homes and nursing home residents (Schols et al., 2004). Selection bias may be present as many studies excluded residents with cognitive impairment and only performed interviews with residents capable of this. Proxies were excluded to ensure only the resident’s voice was included. This might have narrowed the findings; however, research has shown that proxies’ expression of resident’s needs can differ and this review explicitly focuses on the residents’ perspective (Crespo et al., 2012; Orrell et al., 2008)
Whereas the current review identified known themes from residents’ reports, the voice of residents in informing quality management and improving daily practice is still insufficient (Castle & Ferguson, 2010; OECD/EU, 2013). Guidelines are more frequently stressing the importance of including the resident’s voice when monitoring and improving quality of care (OECD/EU, 2013; Thomas et al., 2014; Zorginstituut Nederland, 2017). In the Netherlands, several methodologies are being developed that include narratives to assess quality of care from the resident’s perspective (Triemstra & Fracke, 2017). As demonstrated through this review, narratives provide residents the space to share their stories and specify what needs to be improved and how (Martino et al., 2017; Schlesinger et al., 2015). In practice, this is, however, more complicated than surveys (Schlesinger et al., 2015). In addition, assessing the resident’s voice is not enough; it needs to be translated to policy and practice.
To our knowledge, this review is one of the first to synthesize data from residents’ experiences with quality of care in nursing homes. Our findings highlight the need for residents to express variation in their preferences regarding their physical environment, individual aspects, and social engagement (Edvardsson et al., 2019). Residents should receive enough space to share their care experiences in a way that they feel comfortable doing so. Focusing on meaningful care experiences as a whole can contribute to a new way of assessing experienced quality of care (Corazzini et al., 2019; LaVela & Gallan, 2014; Wolf et al., 2014). This review presents the first steps into identifying what residents consider important. To achieve high-quality experience of care in nursing homes, future research should focus on how best to assess residents’ experiences and how care teams can use these experiences for quality improvement.
Supplemental Material
Suppl_1 – Supplemental material for Themes Related to Experienced Quality of Care in Nursing Homes From the Resident’s Perspective: A Systematic Literature Review and Thematic Synthesis
Supplemental material, Suppl_1 for Themes Related to Experienced Quality of Care in Nursing Homes From the Resident’s Perspective: A Systematic Literature Review and Thematic Synthesis by Katya Y. J. Sion, Hilde Verbeek, Sandra M. G. Zwakhalen, Gaby Odekerken-Schröder, Jos M. G. A. Schols and Jan P. H. Hamers in Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine
Footnotes
Acknowledgements
The researchers would like to thank Erica de Vries and Audrey Beaulen for their assistance throughout the review.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This study was funded by the seven long-term care organizations within the Living Lab in Ageing and Long-Term Care: MeanderGroep, Cicero Zorggroep, Envida, Sevagram, Zuyderland, Mosae Zorggroep, and Vivantes, and by the health insurance fund CZ. They had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Supplemental Material
Supplemental material for this article is available online.
References
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