Staff perceptions of the design of care environments for older people – a qualitative study
Background: Although research has shown the important role played by the physical care environment for residents and staff of residential care facilities (RCFs) for older people, few studies have taken the care staff perspective regarding how the environment influences their ability to provide high quality care. This paper considers care staff perceptions of older people’s RCFs.
Methods: Twenty RCFs in Sweden were purposively sampled to obtain facilities with varying building design, type of ownership, year of construction, building size and geographic location. From each RCF, ten staff were randomly selected and recruited by the care home managers. Staff completed the Staff Perception of Older People’s Residential Care Environments (SPORE) questionnaire. Written responses to open-ended questions on the care environment were analysed using qualitative content analysis.
Results: Several needs and deficiencies in the care environment were identified. The participants described problems with limited spaces and non-functional building design, and restricted access to outside areas. They also expressed the need for physical and cognitive support in the care environment such as handrails, hoists, adequate lighting and colour coding.
Conclusions: There is potential for improving the design of RCFs for older people to provide safe and supportive care environments for residents and to facilitate care delivery, by taking the needs of the building users into account in future planning and design processes.