Design Considerations to Support Nursing Homes' Communities

Abstract

Caring for institutionalized older adults is known to be a complex issue both for families and professionals. In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in this topic primarily due to a growing older population and, hence, a heightened need of research contributions in this area. Previous studies on caregiving for older adults living in nursing homes recognize the necessity to support professionals' work practices to ameliorate their working conditions, and decrease the risk of burnout and job dissatisfaction. In this study, we investigated the practice of caregiving at nursing homes in the Northern Italy in the form of a case-study. We mainly focus on the work practices of care professionals, and on the relational issues between professional and family caregivers. The outcomes of this work shed new light on the opportunities of using ICT solutions to improve relations and information sharing among caregivers.