Nursing Homes: Examining Suitability for Elderly People's Care

This essay delves into the contentious issue of whether nursing homes are the best place for elderly individuals, examining both the advantages and disadvantages of this form of care. The paper begins by defining nursing homes and highlighting the increasing demand due to factors like an aging population and earlier hospital discharges. It explores the reasons for nursing home admissions, including the prevention of hospital readmissions and the easing of family care burdens. The essay then discusses the importance of the location of nursing homes in determining the quality of care, contrasting the skills available in hospitals versus nursing homes. It also considers the physical environment and the markers of quality nursing home care, such as access to therapists and medical care. Furthermore, the essay acknowledges the challenges faced by nursing home residents, including the management of conditions like dementia and the staffing issues that can impact the quality of care. The conclusion emphasizes the need for improved facilities, specialized nursing skills, and adequate staffing to ensure that nursing homes provide effective and comprehensive care for the elderly, ultimately reducing hospital admissions and fostering a better quality of life for residents.

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Nursing Homes are the Best Place for Elderly People
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Nursing Homes are the Best Place for Elderly People
The question whether nursing homes are suitable for the elderly people is a contentious
issue that has been a major focus by health workers and family members. A nursing home is a
residential based care that offers nursing care to the elderly who do not necessarily require
hospitalization but are in need of medical care and assistance. Nursing homes provide long-stay
care for the elderly persons (Morley et al. 2014: 309). For this reason, the demand and
dependency of care homes/nursing homes continue increasing steadily due to the increase in the
population in need. Despite this fact, a majority of people argue that nursing homes are the best
places for the aged persons while others maintain that the place in unsuitable, unfavorable and
inefficient in meeting the health care needs of the elderly. In this case, therefore, this paper seeks
to illuminate the reasons why nursing homes are the best place for the elderly.
There has been significance dependency in the nursing care homes in the recent decades.
Consequently, nursing care homes experience population pressure a factor that is largely
contributed by earlier discharge from health care facilities (Rolland et al.2014:308). The nursing
care home is a suitable alternative that has helped in accommodating the growing number of frail
people. It has thus helped families ease the burden of caring for their old relatives and instead
offer services that these people may not receive in their residents (Katz, 2011: 488). Some
factors have also led to the increased desire for nursing home admission (Spector et al.2013: 675-
677). Firstly, approximately, two-third of the persons admitted to the hospital are 65 and above
thus the frequent admission from hospital to nursing care homes. Secondly, there is the decrease
in the number of the older people seeking inpatient services. Moreover, there is the issue of early
discharge and consequent admission the nursing care home. Thirdly is the inappropriate use of

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hospital by this category of people due to bed-locking thus the need for enrollment in care
homes. Older people admission to hospitals is associated with patient's exacerbation of stress,
illness, and anxiety. Therefore, nursing care homes play a major role in preventing
hospitalization. Mainly, nursing care homes reduce the rate of hospital readmission for the
elderly.
While the above point underpins the importance of older people admission to nursing
homes, there is also substantial evidence that services offered in the two different environments
vary considerably (Katz, 2011: 490). In this case, the location of a nursing home is central in
determining whether the patients access quality health care or not (Turrel, 2001: 27). For
instance, as opposed to nursing homes, hospitals enjoy a lot of skills from clinical nurse
specialists, specialist nurse practitioners, and link nurses. Additionally, there are also the
development nurses that play the role of informing nursing practice (Cherry and Jacob,
2016:367). However, these skills may be inaccessible to nursing homes especially when the
homes are located in very remote areas.
According to Turrel (2001:25), nursing homes provide better physical environment
compared to the geriatric hospital wards. The former favorably cater for the patient's personal
choices. Nevertheless, the aspect of the physical environment for both aspects may differ from
one state to the other. For instance, the Royal Commission of United Kingdom noted that
although the nursing care homes facilities and amenities did not meet the national standard, there
was a notable improvement in the same (Turrel, 2001:25). Therefore, Turrel (2001:26) identifies
the markers of quality nursing home care that include and not limited to; access to rehabilitation
therapists and facilities, access to nursing care, access medical care, documentation and
assessment of a patient, and prescription practice.

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On the contrary, older people that reside in nursing care homes suffer from numerous
conditions that may be poorly managed. Conditions such as dementia, incontinence, diabetes,
and other cognitive impairments require particular expertise for effective management (Morley
et al. 2014: 309). Despite the notion that the availability of such specialists in nursing care homes
could prevent hospitalization by a larger percentage, the number is inadequate (Graverholt,
Forsetlund, and Jamtvedt, 2014:36). In other words, the specialists are not always available in
such environments. Additionally, as earlier mentioned, nursing care homes continue to encounter
large numbers elderly admissions. However, the number of the patients versus the health care
givers does not match thereby leading to poor quality of health care (Tolson et al. 2011:186).
There is, therefore, the need to ensure that there is proper staffing if there is the need to improve
the condition of the health care homes. The major problem that encompasses the issue of skills is
that the nursing home based nurses provide a 24-hour on-site nursing care. However, the number
of nurses employed in such facilities is determined by the registering authority when the home is
empty and depends on the number of beds (Grabowski et al.2014: 39). In this case, therefore, it
is difficult to enroll more nurses even as the level of dependency in the nursing care homes
increases. The rationale is that there is the problem of enforcing the changes that may facilitate
the increase of the number of the trained nursing staff.
In conclusion, nursing care homes are better alternatives for the elderly. However, one
cannot dismiss the fact that there is the need to enhance the conditions of the homes' facilities
and amenities to ensure that the services are effective. Similarly, there is the need to ensure that
the environment is equipped with specialized nursing skills to cater for diverse health,
psychological, physical and other needs of the patients. Additionally, the improvement of
services and staffs in the nursing care homes is a critical approach that seeks to balance the

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pressure of the increased homes' admissions. Essentially, nursing care homes significantly reduce
the rate of elderly admission and readmissions in hospitals. The outcome can be considered to be
positive in that the elderly patients are entitled to some freedom (that includes movement and
unlimited association with family members, relatives and friends). Hence, this helps reduce such
factors as depression, anxiety, stress or loneliness that in most cases lead to health deterioration.
It is thus evident that nursing homes are the most suitable places for the older people so long as
proper improvements in the facilities are implemented.

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References
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