How Context Shapes the Experience of Staff and Residents in Residential Long-Term Care Settings

Abstract

This chapter describes 10 years of research into organizational context in residential long-term care (LTC) settings. It focuses on this book’s first and third questions: What constitutes context for an event, situation, or phenomenon? And how do contexts change, and what is the role of actors in such processes? Although with respect to change, it does not focus as much on secular trends as it does on strategies to improve local context. We explore how context influences use of research by staff, quality-of-life indicators for staff, and ability to improve quality of care and quality of life for LTC residents. First, it describes the development and ongoing use of the Alberta Context Tool. Second, it describes the Translating Research in Elder Care (TREC) program of research, and the LTC setting in which the authors study context to bring about quality improvements. Third, it presents selected empirical findings as evidence that context matters in LTC. Finally, it proposes future directions to understand and modify context for improved quality in LTC.