Negotiating Tensions in Long-Term Residential Care
Banerjee, A., & Braedley, S. (2018). Tensions between principles and practices. Negotiating Tensions in Long-term Residential Care: Ideas Worth Sharing, 37-42.
This chapter shows how time for reflection can be created. However, these reflection meetings were not held for the staff’s benefit but for the benefit of the care plan. The managers interviewed for this chapter admitted that their staff rarely read the care plan. It was an ongoing struggle to find ways to encourage them to read these plans and also to keep the plans up to date.
One strategy that seemed to work was holding regular meetings to discuss residents and update plans. Staff found these meetings valuable. They offered staff an opportunity to discuss residents and share concerns and insights. They mattered to staff, and they often showed up early to these meetings.
The chapter also notes that staff regularly showed up early for shift changes to chat with the outgoing workers. In the past, these shift overlaps were scheduled and paid for, but these shift overlaps were seen to be inefficient and eliminated. Workers still showed up, but now on their own time.
Time and opportunities for discussion can be created as we see in this chapter. But they are often created to support documentation, like updating the care plan, and not to support reflection, knowledge sharing and problem-solving among staff.
