Dr. Kathleen Unroe on the challenge of nursing home staff retention

Kathleen Unroe, M.D., MHA, discusses an editorial in which she and coauthors highlight the problem of staff turnover in long-term care facilities and the dearth of research on how it affects quality of care.

Transcript:
Many families spend a fair amount of time getting to know the caregivers in the facility. So really, they can feel comfortable with the care that their loved one is receiving.

They aren’t able to get to the bathroom. They are not able to dress themselves. They need very personal care. So, they’re spending a lot of time with people every day who are caring for them, those relationships and that trust and the level of comfort that people have with the staff, the caregivers, the formal caregivers providing this care is so important.

Clearly, that turnover in these positions impacts not just that resident, but the family as well who relies on having consistent caregivers who can give them updates on and can work together to provide care for that person.