Objectives: This study examined whether labeling influenced nursing home employees' perceptions of residents and how those perceptions could affect resident-caregiver interactions.
Design: This was a small descriptive study using vignettes and questionnaires.
Setting: Two nursing homes (one rural, one urban) in New England.
Participants: Forty-three nursing home employees including registered nurses, certified nursing assistants, activities staff, and others.
Measurements: All participants read a vignette based on the behavior of a fictional resident and rated their perceptions of the behavior, indicated whether and how they would report the event, and made recommendations for possible courses of action. Although vignettes were the same, the resident label varied: Alzheimer's disease specialized care unit (ADSCU) resident or resident of a non-specialized long-term care unit.
Results: Employees who read the vignette for the ADSCU resident rated the resident's behavior as more problematic, inappropriate, and aggressive than the same behavior for non-ADSCU residents.
Conclusion: The effect of the label of "ADSCU resident" may have implications for care provided in specialized long-term care environments.
Copyright © 2011 American Medical Directors Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.