STAFF EXPECTATION AS A MEDIATOR OF FUNCTIONAL STATUS

大量研究表明， 个人之间的相互影响会导致客观的变化， 表现和行为，以“实现”这些期望。 这些人际间的期望效应是普遍而强大的 各种结果的决定因素，并已被 在教室、工作场所和许多其他环境中学习。 这项拟议中的研究旨在阐明人际关系是如何 期望效应存在于医护人员和老年人之间 疗养院的居民，一个群体，这种影响可能 具有重要的临床意义。 本研究是一项随机对照试验， 养老院环境中的人际期望。 六十 合资格的同意居民新承认合作长期 定期护理设施将被管理的评估电池， 测量他们在几个领域的表现，包括影响， 认知和日常生活活动。 一半参与者 居民将被随机分配到一组指定为 具有“特别高的康复潜力”。 其他 居民将被确定为具有更典型的预期 成果。 合作机构的护士和助手将 要求每周对两组居民进行评估， 将知道每个居民的分组。 结果 将在三个月和六个月时使用 与最初使用的评估组合相同。 我们假设 “高期望组”的居民实际上将 认知、情感和/或 与居民自我保健的“典型”结果相比 组 还将研究第二个对照组。 此外，本发明还提供了一种方法， 录像带的照顾者和居民之间的互动， 小组将被记录和分析，以评估口头和非- 言语中介的预期效果。 这项工作应当 对培训和管理具有重要意义 长期护理环境中的卫生保健工作者，以及 老年人一般。

Considerable research suggests that the expectations that individuals have about one another can cause objective changes in performance and behavior that act to "fulfill" those expectations. These interpersonal expectancy effects are common and powerful determinants of a wide variety of outcomes, and have been studied in the classroom, workplace, and numerous other settings. The proposed study is designed to shed light on how interpersonal expectancy effects occur between health care workers and elderly residents of nursing homes, a group in whom such effects may well have important clinical significance. This study is a randomized controlled trial of the effects of interpersonal expectancy in the nursing home setting. Sixty eligible consenting residents newly admitted to cooperating long term care facilities will be administered an assessment battery to meaure their performance in several domains, including affect, cognition, and activities of daily living. Half of the participating residents will be randomly assigned to a group designated as having "particularly high rehabilitation potential". Other residents will be identified as having more typical expected outcomes. Nurses and aides in the cooperating facilities will be asked to evaluate residents in both groups on a weekly basis, and will be aware of the group assignment of each resident. Outcome measures will be re-administered at three and six months using the same assessment battery used initially. We hypothesize that residents in the "high expectancy group" will in fact have objectively measurable improvements in cognition, affect, and/or self-care as compared with residents in the "typical" outcome group. A second control group will also be studied. In addition, video taped interactions between caretakers and residents in both groups will be recorded and analyzed to assess verbal and non- verbal mediation of the expectancy effects. Such work should have important implications for the training and management of health care workers in long term care settings, and for care of the elderly in general.