Nuffield Village, NSW
Understanding care needs
Nuffield Village, an Anglican Retirement Village in Castle Hill, NSW has received a Better Practice in Aged Care Award for a project that provides care staff with better access to information about resident needs and as a result provides them with more insight into changing care needs.
Surveys of residents and relatives identified that it was most important to them that staff know when their care needs change; that staff know their main health problems; and that there is good communication among staff.
Lengthy nursing plans are typically not easy for care staff to access, read or understand. So the home developed a one-page resident profile that summarises residents' care needs and is quick and easy to access and comprehend.
A case management system was also introduced, where each resident has a registered nurse as their case manager, and multidisciplinary teams have been introduced to facilitate seamless holistic care.
Also, a computerised system has been developed to profile the care and needs of groups of residents and to allow changes in care needs to be identified.
Results
As a result of the improved communication and improved understanding of resident care needs:
- a 15% improvement on the care standards peer review which is an audit of all aspects of care and documentation
- falls decreased by 11%
- the annual resident satisfaction survey showed that 90% of residents agreed or strongly agreed that staff understand and respond to their medical and physical needs and 94% agreed or strongly agreed that overall they are satisfied with the care and services they receive.
