Nurse Aide Empowerment Strategies and Staff Stability: Effects on Nursing Home Resident Outcomes

PURPOSE: This study examines the moderating effect of staff stability on the relationship between management practices used to empower nurse aides and resident outcomes in a multistate sample of nursing homes. An adaptation of Kanter's theory of structural power in organizations guided the framework for the model used in this study. DESIGN AND METHODS: Management practices and nurse aide staff stability measures were taken from a survey of directors of nursing (n = 156) and day-shift charge nurses (n = 430) in a stratified random sample of nursing facilities in Maine, Mississippi, New York, and Ohio (n = 156). Facility risk-adjusted pressure ulcer incidence rates and social engagement scores, taken from the Minimum Data Set, served as resident outcome measures. A hierarchical linear regression model was used to test the moderating effect of staff stability. RESULTS: The situation in which higher numbers of rewards were given to nurse aide staff was associated with lower incidence of pressure ulcers, whereas the situation in which nurse aides had more influence in resident care decisions was associated with higher aggregate social engagement scores. The inclusion of nurse aide staff stability in the regression model provided additional explanatory information for the relationship between management practices and resident outcomes. Facilities experiencing low turnover and high retention were associated with lower pressure ulcer incidence, whereas facilities with high turnover and high retention were associated with higher social engagement scores. IMPLICATIONS: This study suggests that certain management practices used to empower nurse aides can influence resident outcomes. Further, effects of nurse aide staff stability vary with respect to the physical versus psychosocial nature of the outcome.