ENHANCING WORK EFFICACY OF SKILLED NURSING ASSISTANT

描述（由申请人提供）：长期护理行业面临人员危机，威胁到全国老年养老院（NH）居民的护理质量。本研究通过开发一种可行的干预措施来提高护理助理（NAs）的工作效能（感知控制），从而解决了这一问题。据推测，那些觉得自己能够主动管理工作需求的NAs会做出更积极、更有效的回应。这应转化为减少人员流失率，改善工作绩效，从而改善养老院老年人的功能健康和生活质量。因此，该项目将开发一个多方面的干预措施，以提高NAs的工作效率。具体的目标是：（1a）利用护士自己的投入来开发一种针对老年人护理的基本知识、处理工作需求的策略以及与同事、主管和住院医生互动的人际交往技巧的有效性增强干预的内容；（1b）制定一项补充性干预措施，旨在使注册护士（RNs）和执业/职业护士（lpn）意识到他们自己的态度和行为如何影响护士的动机和表现，并教授旨在提高护士工作效能的监督技能；(2)选择、制定和测试结果措施，以评估干预措施的有效性；(3)对原型干预措施进行有限的现场测试。这些目标将在一个为期两年的发展研究项目中实现，该项目包括4项主要活动：通过与佐治亚州不同NHs的直接护理人员、管理层和消费者收集定性和定量数据来生成内容；选择和/或发展自我报告和观察性结果测量；制定干预措施，为护士和专业护理人员提供协调的原型干预措施的手册和材料，并进行实地测试，以确保可行性并收集反馈，以便在准备全面实施和评估的赠款申请时对干预措施进行微调。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The long-term care industry faces a staffing crisis that threatens quality of care for elderly nursing home (NH) residents nationwide. This research addresses that problem by developing a feasible intervention to enhance work-related efficacy (perceived control) among nursing assistants (NAs). Presumably, NAs who feel able proactively to manage the demands of their jobs will respond more positively and effectively. This should translate to reduced turnover, improved job performance and, as a result, improved functional health and quality of life for elderly nursing home residents. This project will therefore develop a multifaceted intervention to enhance NAs' work-related efficacy. Specific aims are: (1a) to use NAs' own input to develop content for an efficacy-enhancing intervention targeting basic knowledge of care of the aged, strategies for dealing with work demands, and interpersonal skills for interacting with coworkers, supervisors, and residents; (1b) to develop a complementary intervention aimed at sensitizing registered nurses (RNs) and licensed practical/vocational nurses (LPNs) to how their own attitudes and behaviors influence NAs' motiva- tion and performance, and teaching supervisory skills designed to enhance NAs' work efficacy; (2) to select, develop and test outcome measures to evaluate intervention effectiveness, and (3) to conduct a limited field test of a prototype intervention. These aims will be pursued in a 2-year developmental research project comprising 4 main activities: content generation through qualitative and quantitative data gathering with direct care staff, management, and consumers in diverse Georgia NHs; selection and/or development of self-report and observational outcome measures; intervention development, yielding manuals and materials for coordinated prototype interventions for NAs and professional nursing staff, and a field test to ensure feasibility and garner feedback for fine-tuning the intervention as a grant application is prepared for full-scale implementation and evaluation.