Moving person-centred philosophy into practice with older people in residential care: a qualitative descriptive study

The overall aim of this study was to describe how enrolled nurses and personal care assistants (care providers) operationalised person-centred care (PCC) with older people in a residential care setting. While there is growing theoretical and research literature about PCC, there is a paucity of knowledge in understanding what care providers do to operationalise PCC with older people. The researcher conducting this study explored the perspectives, beliefs and practices of these care providers in operationalising PCC. The VIPS framework for PCC, which consists of four constructs ‘valuing the person’, ‘individualised care’, ‘understanding the person’s perspective’, and ‘positive social psychology’, was used to theoretically frame this study. A qualitative descriptive study using focus groups and individual interviews, with nine participants, drawn from one residential care setting, was adopted as a methodology and method. The data collection provided a snapshot of what was happening in practice according to the perspectives, insights or experiences of the care providers in this residential care setting. The findings of this research has generated important new knowledge about PCC in this residential care setting and new insights into what care providers do in operationalising PCC with older people in a residential care setting. This field study also resulted in findings that confirmed and are consistent with the literature relating to the operationalisation of the philosophy of PCC by care providers with older people in a residential care setting. These findings have implications for practice, given the limited studies available, for theory, education and policy, and raise questions for further research.