Partnerships in nursing homes: How do family caregivers of residents with dementia perceive collaboration with staff?
BACKGROUND
Partnerships between family and nursing staff in nursing homes are essential to address residents' needs and wishes. Collaboration is needed to create partnerships; nonetheless, challenges exist.


AIM
This study aimed to gain insights into the experiences of families collaborating with staff.


METHOD
Semi-structured interviews were held with 30 family caregivers of nursing home residents with dementia.


FINDINGS
Data reflected three themes, which shaped collaboration with staff from families' perspective, 'communication', 'trust and dependency' and 'involvement'.


DISCUSSION
Good communication appeared to be a requisite condition for having trust in staff and quality of involvement in residents' life. Good communication was described as having informal contact with staff, which enabled family and staff to build a personal connection. Consequently, this seemed to increase trust and satisfaction regarding involvement.


CONCLUSION
Findings suggest that increasing informal contact and building a personal connection should be a priority for staff in order to improve collaboration and to create partnerships with families.
['Hoek|Linda Jm|LJ|https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1596-2080', 'van Haastregt|Jolanda Cm|JC|', 'de Vries|Erica|E|', 'Backhaus|Ramona|R|', 'Hamers|Jan Ph|JP|', 'Verbeek|Hilde|H|']
D017028:Caregivers D003142:Communication D003704:Dementia D005190:Family D005260:Female D006801:Humans D008297:Male D008875:Middle Aged D009735:Nursing Homes D009740:Nursing Staff
partnership nursing home family caregiving dementia communication