A Nursing Home and Its Organizational Climate: An Ethnography / Edition 1

by Bonnie C. Farmer

Overview

Nursing home reform, Professor Farmer asserts, calls for increased emphasis upon issues related to life rather than care. Organizational climate, which reflects the nursing home's unique position to impact life issues, provides a conceptual framework for effective interventions, evaluations, and ultimately meaningful reform.

The general atmosphere of most nursing homes remains overwhelmingly negative in spite of those few homes that are credited with excellence. Professor Farmer believes that the concept of organizational climate holds promise for better understanding the complexities and impact of atmosphere in any one nursing home. At the same time, organizational climate as a concept is poorly understood. There is a need to rethink the concept and returban to the original notion of weather as its metaphor. Farmer attempts this in her case study by describing organizational climate where it can best be captured.

Practitioners of long-term care, from the fields of administration, geronotology, nursing, nutrition, policy makers, occupational and physical therapy, social work, and therapeutic recreation will find the insights of this study of great value, as will graduate students, scholars, and others concerned with organizational studies and issues in gerontology.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780865692626
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	06/18/1996
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.44(d)

About the Author

BONNIE CASHIN FARMER is an Assistant Professor of Nursing at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven, CT. Her previous appointments include university teaching positions and practice at the municipal, county, and state levels of health care.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
The Organizational Climate of the Meadows of Madison
Weather as Metaphor for Organizational Climate
The Meadows of Madison
Major Climate Elements of the Meadows of Madison
Essential Structure of a "Nice Place"
Core Values of a "Nice Place"
Dominant Processes of "A Nice Place to Be If You Have to Be Here"
Identified Determinants of the Organizational Climate of the Meadows of Madison
A Study of Contrasts
Analysis
Conclusions
Appendix A: Perspectives of Aging
Appendix B: Review of the Literature: The Nursing Home
Appendix C: Review of the Literature: Organizational Climate
Appendix D: An Ethnographic Design for the Study of Organizational Climate in a Nursing Home
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

Using weather as a metaphor for pervasive and constantly shifting influences, Farmer (nursing, Connecticut State U.-New Haven) examines a 68-bed nursing home in the suburb of a large New England city. She considers such dimensions as the site selection, her first encounters with the organization, an average day, physical features, hierarchy, core values, dominant processes, and determinants of the organizational climate. She analyzes her findings and presents methodological, theoretical, and practical implications. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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