Residential Aged Care and Homelike Environments: A scoping literature review of views of the aged care workforce

Abstract

Evidence exists of the benefits of homelike environments for residents of residential aged care facil-ities (RACF). To date, most research has focused on the perceptions, experiences, and quality-of-life outcomes of homelike environments from residents’ perspectives. The views of the aged care workforce (ACW) about homelike environment in RACF is under-researched. A scoping review was conducted of the Pubmed, Medline, PsychInfo, Cinahl, and Scopus databases in April 2021. Search terms included: homelike environment; residential aged care; staff. Perspectives of ACW were synthesized using Rijnaard’s framework, encompassing three key categories. Of 1597 papers identified, 21 articles published from 1990 to 2021 met the eligibility criteria for review. The scop-ing review provided insights from nursing staff, facility managers, administrators, and also activity coordinators, laundry, and catering staff. Eight key elements of homelike environments were identi-fied, further classified into three key categories: (1) built environment (indoor and outdoor spaces); (2) psychological elements (residents’ choices and control, maintaining residents’ beliefs and habits); (3) social elements (relationships with residents, families, and staff, communal environments and maintaining contact with community). No important differences in themes across ACW groups were evident. Homelike environments were associated with higher job satisfaction, lower burnout, lower staff turnover and did not contribute to staff distress nor perceptions of reduced safety. Homelike environments are potentially beneficial for ACW. Review findings can inform planning, implemen-tation, and evaluation of homelike environments, to ultimately enhance outcomes for ACW and res-idents in RACFs.