Nurses' and carers' appraisals of workload in care of frail elderly awaiting nursing home placement

The aim of this study is to describe carers' and nurses' appraisals of workload in care of frail elderly awaiting nursing home (NH) placement. Carers' workload of care for frail elderly awaiting NH placement has been studied separately from that of nurses' workload. The literature neither addressed a comparison of carers' and nurses' appraisals of psychological and physical workloads nor the most strenuous factors common to the workloads of both nurses and carers in care of the same elderly person. The terms 'carers' and 'nurses' in this paper refer to informal caregivers and to both enrolled nurses and Registered Nurses respectively, when no particular one is stated. The sample comprised 11 nurses and 11 carers paired based on care provided to the same elderly person awaiting NH placement in Norway. Data collected by a workload-scale was analyzed by descriptive statistics. Data collected by individual interviews were analyzed by qualitative content analysis. Carers' and nurses' appraisals of workload were compared and contrasted and most strenuous factors described. The findings show that both carers and nurses rated workload levels maximum. Carers' highest ratings concerned psychological workload, while nurses' highest ratings concerned physical workload. The workload ratings concerning elderly with advanced dementia disease were most similarly aligned. Qualitative content analysis showed three categories that describe the most strenuous factors common to the workloads of both carers and nurses. These were feeling responsible, burdened and ambivalent. This study reports carers' and nurses' appraisals of workload in care of frail elderly awaiting NH placement. The results show many similarities and some differences. These results may help guide policy development to address resource allocations to elderly care. Further research is needed to address workloads of care for elderly awaiting NH placement.