A Comparison of Physical Nursing Home Environment for Older Adults and Their Families

Globally, aging populations and increases in chronic diseases mean that more people will need long-term care in the next decade. Providing appropriate care to meet the needs of older adults and their families is a key consideration. This move to create a home-like environment in nursing homes has become extensive this past decade. Having an appropriate atmosphere where residents feel like they belong can help elderly people to age healthfully. This systematic literature analysis will address older adult residents' and their families' needs for nursing home physical environments and identify key elements of the physical nursing home environment for older adults and their families as reported by residents and relatives. This structured literature analysis will also investigate key models for establishing the physical nursing home environment. This analysis integrates knowledge from evidence based data collection by the research studies reviewed that investigated physical nursing home environment of older adults and their families' needs and models for establishing the physical nursing home environment. From the research reviewed in this study it was clear and consistent throughout the reading that my hypothesis was accepted; home-like physical nursing home environment is a kind of the physical nursing home environment that older adults and their families favor. The Culture Change model, The Eden Alternative, and The Green House Project are key models for establishing the physical nursing home environment to promote home-like environment.