Date of Conferral

2016

Degree

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

School

Nursing

Advisor

Murielle Beene

Abstract

Quality of life for adults living in adult family homes requires further attention as the elderly population continues to grow and moves from minority to majority. There is a lack of data on residents in adult family home settings and their quality of life. The purpose of this project was to identify if individualized nursing care plans had an impact on the residents' quality of life in the adult family home. In this study, a registered nurse assessed the residents to create an individualized nursing care plan that would be implemented to improve quality of life. These care plans were comprised of 3 distinct nursing needs: risk of falls, self-care deficit, and nutrition imbalance less than the body needs. Each care plan was created with nursing-specific interventions that could be tested, replicated, and evaluated. A test of this premise was conducted using a sample of 6 residents in an adult family home. Only one resident met the criteria of mild to moderate dementia for testing. The single qualifying resident who participated in the project demonstrated improvement in her quality of life after the proposed intervention was implemented. This change was evaluated using quantitative data gathered with the Dementia Quality of Life assessment, and qualitatively with the caregiver and registered nurse evaluation tool. The interventions of the nursing care plans were relevant and as a result, the Dementia Quality of Life assessment did show an improvement in scores, which reflected an improvement in quality of life. Elderly adults with dementia living in an adult family home may benefit from individualized nursing care plans, which may improve their quality of life.

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