Person-Centered Care Practices and Organizational Issues in Long-Term Care Facilities: A review and synthesis of the literature

Care practices in long-term care facilities have typically been guided by the biomedical approach to care. In the past two decades, there has been a growing movement in transforming care for residents from a medical model to a person-centered model in long-term care. This capstone project reviews and synthesizes current literature on person-centered care, with a focus on care practices and organizational issues. An extensive literature review was conducted using databases such as Ageline, PsychINFO, Medline, Google Scholar, CINAHL and the Simon Fraser University library catalogue. A total of 69 articles that addressed the research questions were identified and incorporated in this review. Empirical evidence indicates that implementing person-centered care practices that honor the dignity and choice of residents, strengthen resident and care staff relationships and utilize nonpharmacological care to preserve the personhood of residents can improve the caring experience. In addition, there is evidence that person-centered care can improve the well-being and quality of life of residents and improve job satisfaction for care providers. This paper also examines the organizational facilitators such as culture change, staff training and management’s role, and environmental design as well as the organizational barriers in implementing person-centered care.