Long-Term Care Facilities and Nursing Homes during the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Scoping Review of the Perspectives of Professionals, Families and Residents

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Sep 26;18(19):10099. doi: 10.3390/ijerph181910099.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has had significant repercussions for nursing home residents, their families, and professionals. The objective was to describe the perspectives of residents, their families, and nursing home employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. A scoping review was carried out using the PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews. The inclusion criteria were: qualitative and/or mixed methods studies in English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish. The review covers studies published from 11 March 2020 to 15 February 2021. CINAHL, PubMed, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, Scopus, British Nursing Index, Proquest, PsycInfo, and Google Scholar databases were used. We conducted a systematic narrative synthesis, presenting the results narratively and showing descriptive statistics on the studies reviewed. Sixteen documents were obtained from 175 results. Two studies focused on residents and one on their families. The remaining studies looked at professionals. Nursing homes had great difficulty managing resources, which was exacerbated by emotional exhaustion among residents, employees, and family members. In nursing homes, creative initiatives and new forms of leadership appeared to meet emerging needs during the pandemic. The results of the study show the impact of the pandemic on nursing homes and the response capacity present among residents, family members, and professionals.

Keywords: COVID-19; elderly people over 65; mixed methods; nursing homes; qualitative research; scoping review.

Publication types

  • Review
  • Systematic Review

MeSH terms

  • COVID-19*
  • Humans
  • Long-Term Care
  • Nursing Homes
  • Pandemics*
  • SARS-CoV-2