Van Haitsma receives grant to study person-centered care

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. Kimberly Van Haitsma, associate professor of nursing and director of the Program for Person-Centered Living Systems of Care (PPCLSC) , has received a grant from The Patrick and Catherine Weldon Donaghue Medical Research Foundation to advance understanding of how to deliver person-centered care. The Donaghue Foundation's grant program , "Another Look: Better Health for Elders in Care Facilities," was established to provide funding for research projects that can improve quality of care for the elderly living in care facilities. For their studies, researchers must use data that already exist and identify a stakeholder with whom they will collaborate to develop clinical care guidelines that may be readily used to improve care. Van Haitsma's study will use data from a previous study funded by the National Institute of Nursing Research that assessed preferences for everyday living in a nursing home. Van Haitsma's research will address four key elements: - The types of people most likely to report consistently on their preferences over time, and the types of preferences that tend to remain stable; - The accuracy of preferences reported by family members and friends; - The relationship among resident choice, preference importance ratings and preference satisfaction; - Staff perceptions of residents' preferences and how they can be used to advance care delivery. The project stakeholder is the Pennsylvania Culture Change Coalition , a statewide partnership of caregivers, providers, regulators, families and consumers of elder care services that works to create system change regarding person-centered care.