Nurses' Perspectives when Working with Families while Delivering Function-Focused-Care to Older Adults in Acute Care Settings

Older adults are at increased risk for developing functional decline during hospitalization, putting them in danger of negative health outcomes including skin breakdown, impaired mobility and infections. Function-Focused-Care (FFC) is an approach to care designed to help prevent these adverse consequences in this patient population during hospitalization. Families are often present with older adults during their hospitalization but little research has explored nurses perceptions around working with families in FFC. This secondary analysis explored the perceptions of 57 nurses in working with families in delivering FFC to older adults in acute care settings. Two major themes were identified: 1) nurses perceived families as facilitating FFC, and 2) nurses identified families as constraining FFC. In conclusion, nurses viewed families as double-edged swords and described them as creating tension for nurses when caring for older adults. The findings from this study provide insight into the tension nurses experience when providing care for older adults and raises awareness about the importance of nurse-family collaboration in the delivery of FFC to older adults.