Strategies and actions to enable meaningful family connections in nursing homes during the COVID-19: A Scoping Review

ABSTRACT

Objectives

To better understand the impact of visitor restrictions on nursing home residents and their families as well as strategies and actions that were conducted in nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

A scoping review was carried out in October 2020. Several electronic databases were used: Cochrane Plus, Scopus, Web of Sciences and PubMed. 725 results were identified. We included 10 articles.

Results

Thematic analysis obtained the following categories: the impact of COVID-19 on nursing home residents’ lives and their families, procedures and frameworks of nursing homes during and after lockdown, and solutions and resources implemented by health care professionals to improve the connection between older people and their families.

Conclusions

Visitor restrictions have a high impact on the health and well-being of older adults’ and their families. The main strategies and solutions employed to reduce social isolation and facilitate the communication between older adults’ and their families were the use of information and communication technologies, family support groups, and the assignment of reference staff to each family.

Clinical implications

The strategies and solutions mentioned should be internationally considered by health care providers in nursing homes to improve connections between family and older adults.

KEYWORDS:

• Aging
• caregivers
• caregiving
• elderly
• gerontology
• health
• international aging
• interventions
• long-term care
• nursing
• Caregivers
• Family
• Health Care Providers
• Long-term Care Facility
• Older Adults
• Well-being
• Social Isolation
• Social Participation

Acknowledgments

MDMC's scholarship was funded by Galician University System (GUS), which obtained funds through Regional Development Fund (RDF) (European Social Fund 2014 -2020) with 80%, Operational Programme RDF Galicia 2014 -2020, and the remaining 20% by the Secretaría Xeral de Universidades of the Galicia with the reference ED481A 2018/205.MDMC's is supported by C.I.T.I.C., as the research center accredited by Galician University System, which is funded by “Consellería de Cultura, Educación e Universidades from Xunta de Galicia,“ which provided 80% of funds through E.R.D.F. Funds, E.R.D.F. Operational Programme Galicia 2014 -2020, and the remaining 20% was provided by “Secretaría Xeral de Universidades“ [Grant ED431G 2019/01[. RVS's scholarship was funded by Galician University System (GUS), which obtained funds through Regional Development Fund (RDF) (European Social Fund 2014 - 2020) with 80%, Operational Programme RDF Galicia 2014 -2020, and the remaining 20% by the Secretaría Xeral de Universidades of the Galicia with the reference ED481A- 2020/034.

The authors would like to recognize the reviewers contributions to this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the European Social Fund [ED481A-2018/205; ED481A-2020/034].