A study of family visits and care staff attitudes toward elderly nursing home residents in Israel

Nursing home placement can affect the visiting pattern of the family to the older person. In this small study we wanted to investigate the benefits of family visits for elderly nursing home residents by comparing residents who received visits to residents who did not receive visits, to examine the views of multi-disciplinary staff regarding family visits of elderly residents, and examine whether multi-disciplinary staff attitude to elderly nursing home residents changed as a result of family visits. This small sample from an Israeli nursing home indicated differences between the group of elderly residents who received family visits and those who did not. Those who received family visits reported better family relationships in the past and a higher frequency of visits before entering the nursing home. Those who did not receive visits reported never having been satisfied with the frequency of visits and strong feelings of longing at the conclusion of family visits. The multi-disciplinary staff members recognized the significance of family visits and tended to maintain an open policy towards family visits. The staff gave preference to the needs of the individual over the routine of the institution, albeit with certain limitations. No statistically significant correlations were found between the visit variables and staff attitude to residents. Nevertheless, we must state that the distribution of replies indicates that nursing home staff believed that there is a positive correlation between their attention to residents and family visits.