Home » Health » National study into the consequences of corona in nursing homes

National study into the consequences of corona in nursing homes



Nursing homes should be given room to determine their own visitor arrangement. These and other recommendations come from research carried out by the LUMC and UMCG within the academic workshops for elderly care. During the corona crisis, the researchers map out what nursing homes have to deal with. These interim insights support national and regional policy.

The academic elderly care workshops consist of a university medical center and nursing homes from the surrounding area. Research within this collaboration is funded by the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS) and ZonMw, and the nursing homes themselves.

Support for national policy

Professor of Elderly Medicine Wilco Achterberg of the LUMC and Sytse Zuidema of the UMCG wanted to map current developments in nursing homes. For this they collect and analyze the minutes of crisis teams in nursing homes. Various institutions, including the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, were informed about this weekly. Achterberg: “They use our input to support their policy. For example, we report the concerns that were present among the staff. Initially, this mainly concerned the use of personal protective equipment. ”

Recommendations for the next wave “

We also want to know not only what’s going on, but also how best to implement measures. ” The researchers held panel discussions with members of the crisis teams. “This showed that the visitor ban was difficult to implement for the staff. In addition, there were differences in the risk of contamination per region, while the visitors scheme applied everywhere. So it would be better to give nursing homes the space to fill in their own visitor arrangement. ”

The researchers also recommend that a permanent care team work in a department. Achterberg: “As a result, infected clients can be effectively isolated and the risk of spreading to the rest of the nursing home is reduced.” In addition, it emerged that living room activities should continue as much as possible because this can give residents rest. For example, by closing each department as a cohort.

Relative rest in nursing homes

The crisis seems to be abating recently. “That calm is relative,” says Zuidema, “generally there is peace but there have recently been outbreaks again.” In addition, the staff is overloaded. “They had a really hard time. Almost half of all deaths were in nursing homes. Employees have performed more shifts and we are seeing that sickness absence is only now increasing. There is also a fear that things could go wrong again. ”
It is therefore important to continue to monitor current developments in nursing homes. Achterberg and Zuidema will continue their research until the end of the year. Achterberg: “Only this way can we learn ahead.”

The research is a collaboration between the UNC-ZH and the academic workplace for elderly care in Groningen, the UNO-UMCG. The findings and recommendations have been incorporated in twee factsheets.

Source: LUMC

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.