ABSTRACT
Cognitive impairment and frailty associated with dementia renders residents of long-term care (LTC) facilities particularly vulnerable to physical and emotional harm. Resident-to-resident violence affects not only the target of the aggression, but also the aggressor, as well as the formal and informal caregivers who must intervene. To date, little research has been conducted on resident-to-resident violence despite preliminary but emerging evidence that it is a common (and likely growing) problem in LTC settings. Exploration of this phenomenon presents multiple pragmatic and ethical challenges. This article presents a rationale for implementing newer technological methods to collect data in investigations of resident-to-resident violence associated with dementia. The advantages and disadvantages of electronic surveillance in LTC research and the ethical principles involved are discussed, and an argument is developed for using electronic surveillance in both the shared, as well as private, spaces of the facility.
Subject(s)
Data Collection/methods , Dementia/complications , Elder Abuse/statistics & numerical data , Nursing Homes , Nursing Research/methods , Videotape Recording/methods , Aged , Confidentiality , Data Collection/ethics , Data Collection/legislation & jurisprudence , Dementia/psychology , Elder Abuse/ethics , Elder Abuse/legislation & jurisprudence , Electronics , Human Experimentation/ethics , Human Experimentation/legislation & jurisprudence , Humans , Interpersonal Relations , Nursing Homes/organization & administration , Nursing Research/ethics , Nursing Research/legislation & jurisprudence , Prevalence , Principle-Based Ethics , Risk Reduction Behavior , Safety Management , Technology Assessment, Biomedical , United States/epidemiology , Videotape Recording/ethics , Videotape Recording/legislation & jurisprudence , Vulnerable PopulationsABSTRACT
ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGIES ARE RELATIVELY novel tools for research and daily care in long-term care (LTC) facilities that are faced with the burgeoning of the older adult population and dwindling staffing resources. The degree to which stakeholders in LTC facilities are receptive to the use of these technologies is poorly understood. Eighteen semi-structured focus groups and one interview were conducted with relevant groups of stakeholders at seven LTC facilities in southwestern Pennsylvania. Common themes identified across all focus groups centered on concerns for privacy, autonomy, cost, and safety associated with implementation of novel technologies. The relative importance of each theme varied by stakeholder group as well as the perceived severity of cognitive and/or physical disability. Our findings suggest that ethical issues are critical to acceptance of novel technologies by their end users, and that stakeholder groups are interdependent and require shared communication about the acceptance of these emerging technologies.
