Purpose: The purpose of this article is to describe the projected use for long-term-care services through 2012. Design and Methods: We constructed a static-component projection model using age, function, and other covariates. We obtained enrollee projections from the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) and combined these with nursing home and community long-term-care service use rates from the...

AIMS To explore and identify the core elements of the nurse executive role and the contribution these posts make to health service organisations in terms of quality and performance. BACKGROUND With the ongoing global reform of health services and, in particular, currently in Australia, this commentary paper explores the available evidence that explains and describes the role that nursing lead...

BACKGROUND Concern for the sustainability of health care systems has forced health authorities and insurance companies to develop performance measurement systems to promote the achievement of health objectives. These actions aim to stimulate quality improvement while controlling costs by making providers accountable for what they do as well as for the quality of the care they provide. However, ...

This study aimed to examine what specialist nursing contributes to HIV service delivery across England and how it could be optimised. A three part multi-method qualitative study was undertaken, involving (1) interviews with 19 stakeholders representing professional or service user groups; (2) interviews with nurse/physician pairs from 21 HIV services; and (3) case studies involving site visits ...

PURPOSE The purpose of this article is to describe how assisted living (AL) fits with other long-term-care services. DESIGN AND METHODS We analyzed the evolution of AL, including the populations served, the services offered, and federal and state policies that create various incentives or disincentives for using AL to replace other forms of care such as nursing home care or home care. RESUL...

BACKGROUND While most studies focused solely on the comparison between informal caregivers and non-caregivers, little is known about the relation between caregiving time or caregiving activities and lifestyle factors. Thus, the aim of this study was to examine whether informal caregiving time and type of caregiving activities are associated with body mass index (BMI) and the frequency of sporti...

INTRODUCTION The Electronic Health Record (EHR) is being advocated as a tool to improve patient care. Nationwide initiatives are under way to determine how to implement EHR. To date, community nursing homes have not been involved in that effort. Many reasons, including multiple providers in a home, physical structure of a facility, multiple facilities, high costs of implementation, and maintena...

Introduction. With constant changes in health care it is imperative that nursing education programs themselves act as agents of change. Nursing education has the responsibility to produce nursing professionals and expert practitioners to shape the nursing practice not merely respond to changes in the practice environment. It must prepare nurses who can participate as full partners in health car...