The unrestrained monitoring system and its influence on the care staff

Abstract

  The aim of this study was to clarify how the introduction of a 24-hour unrestrained monitoring system in a nursing home affected night-time activity and care among care staffs. This system was composed of an air pressure sensor system and an ultrasonic oscillosensor system. The intervened participants were ten care staffs (age 37.4±14.2) and nineteen elderly persons (age 85.6±8.9) in a nursing home, Osaka, Japan. We selected the control group consisting of ten care staff (age 39.0±15.8) and twenty elderly persons (age 86.5±9.0) in the same facility. We carried out a baseline survey at the end of September 2008, and the follow-up study was done at the end of October 2008. From the comparisons of the average scores of measurements between pre- and post-intervention using two-way repeated measures analysis of variance, “the counts of diaper changing” and “the total score of stressor scale” significantly decreased in the intervention group (p ＜ 0.05, respectively). These results suggest that the introduction of the 24-hour monitoring system in the nursing home could decrease the care burden of the care staffs.