Thinking beyond numbers: nursing staff and quality of care in nursing homes

Research output: ThesisDoctoral ThesisInternal

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Abstract

The quality of care in Dutch nursing homes is a popular topic, with continuous calls for more hands-on care. The assumption is that more or more highly-trained staff will increase the quality of care. Based on this dissertation, there is no evidence to suggest that more staff will lead to higher-quality care. A large-scale study carried out at 282 nursing home units reveals that there are too few vocational nurses at Dutch nursing homes to objectively determine their impact on the quality of care. It was found that vocational nurses can indeed contribute to a positive team climate and can serve as leaders in the workplace.
The results also demonstrate that organisations with a clear vision about the use of vocational nurses are more equipped to recruit and bind these nurses. Nursing homes can only become attractive internship organisations for vocational nurses-in-training if they have vocational role models who are held accountable for their skills.
Original languageEnglish
Awarding Institution
  • Maastricht University
Supervisors/Advisors
  • Hamers, Jan, Supervisor
  • Capezuti, E., Supervisor, External person
  • van Rossum, Henricus, Co-Supervisor
  • Verbeek, Hilde, Co-Supervisor
Award date12 Apr 2017
Place of PublicationMaastricht
Publisher
Print ISBNs9789461596758
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2017

Keywords

  • nursing homes
  • quality
  • vocational nursing degree

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