Survey on the Attitudes and Concerns of Fee-Based Elderly Nursing Homes Staff Regarding Medication Assistance in Japan: A Questionnaire Survey

Abstract

Objective: An aging population results in an increased number of people in need of long-term care.　Despite the role of care staff in supporting sufficient medication use, and medication risk management being important in long-term care, attitudes and concerns regarding medication assistance among nursing home staff are unclear.　The study aimed to survey fee-based elderly nursing homes staff attitudes and concerns about supporting medication use and drug information.
Methods: The questionnaire was designed to survey the attitudes, concerns, and knowledge of the support of residents' medication use by fee-based elderly nursing homes staff.　In August 2012, the questionnaire was distributed to 360 staff in 12 fee-based elderly nursing homes in Japan.
Results: A total of 201 responses (from 44 nursing staff and 157 care workers) were used in the analysis; 59.1% of nursing staff and 87.9% of care workers were anxious about the lack of basic medication knowledge, and 15.9% of nursing staff and 76.4% of care workers felt anxious that they could not answer residents' questions about medication.　Regarding the frequency of behaviors for obtaining drug information, few staff usually ask physicians (17.2%) or pharmacists (24.0%) for information.
Conclusion: Many fee-based elderly nursing homes staff were concerned about supporting medication use without knowledge of the medications that elderly residents are taking in fee-based elderly nursing homes.　The findings suggest that fee-based elderly nursing homes staff wanted to obtain basic drug information to support safe medication use.　It is important to relieve their concerns by providing basic education programs and strengthening collaboration with other health professionals to improve the quality of care involving medication.