“They just did what they usually do”: Mistreatment, abuse, and neglect in nursing homes from the perspective of Ministry of Health auditing teams

• Published in: Geriatric nursing (New York) Vol. 48; pp. 24 - 31
• Main Authors: Lev, Sagit, Dolberg, Pnina, Lang, Barbara
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01.11.2022
• Subjects: Aged; Ageism; Auditing teams; Elder abuse; Elder Abuse - psychology; Elder mistreatment; Elder neglect; Focus Groups; Humans; Nursing home; Nursing Homes; Auditing teams; Elder abuse; Elder neglect; Elder mistreatment; Nursing home
• ISSN: 0197-4572; 1528-3984
• DOI: 10.1016/j.gerinurse.2022.08.005

•Failure in addressing basic, personal, and social needs of residents in nursing homes.•Violation of residents’ privacy and human dignity in nursing homes.•Psychological, financial, and physical abuse of residents in nursing homes.•The findings can be explained by perceptions of ageism and residents' de-humanization.•The findings highlight the importance of the auditing role in nursing homes. The aim of this article was to examine how Ministry of Health auditing teams experience quality of care, mistreatment, abuse, and neglect in nursing homes in Israel. The research included four in-depth focus groups consisting of 19 multidisciplinary auditors. The qualitative analysis was encoded in stages with repeated comparisons between individual participants and within groups and led to three main themes: (1) Failure in addressing basic, personal, and social needs of residents in nursing homes; (2) Mistreatment manifested in violation of residents’ privacy and human dignity, neglect, and physical harm; (3) Abuse, including psychological, financial, and physical abuse. The findings can be explained by the characteristics of nursing homes as total institutions, as well as perceptions of ageism and de-humanization of the residents. In addition, the findings highlight the importance of the auditing role in monitoring the nursing homes’ quality of care and the safety of the residents.