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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Assessing and balancing elder risk, safety and autonomy: decision-making practices of health care professionals | Author(s) | Elizabeth L Clemens, Harriett E Hayes |
Journal title | Home Health Care Services Quarterly, vol 16, no 3, 1997 |
Pages | pp 3-20 |
Source | http://www.tandfonline.com |
Keywords | At risk ; Independence ; Evaluation ; Personnel ; United States of America. |
Annotation | Various professionals assess and manage risk with frail older people, yet no standard practice guidelines are used across the care continuum. This qualitative study explored how care workers conceptualise and assess risk with frail older people. Fifteen professionals, including home care case managers, visiting nurses and hospital discharge social workers, were interviewed. Two decision-making styles were identified through multidisciplinary analysis of transcripts: the "snap decision-makers" and the "agonisers". Labelling strategies are identified that may assist care workers with the dissonance between professional training and the realities of practice. Variable thresholds for risk tolerance among diverse professionals were found. These findings suggest that risk assessment often reflects the values of the individual practitioner's profession and agency culture. Standardised training and ethical practice guidelines are needed to reduce extreme variability in professionals' judgements, and to better assist staff with assessing and balancing risk, safety, and autonomy. (AKM). |
Accession Number | CPA-971209209 A |
Classmark | CA3: C3: 4C: QM: 7T |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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