I came across an article titled “Does the well-informed patient receive better care from the well-educated nurse?” After reading it, I got to wondering how medically aware residents of independent, assisted living and skilled nursing communities and their families are. The next logical question of course is, what role, if any does your senior housing community play in creating or enhancing medical awareness?
Here are my questions:
1. Who makes most of the decisions family members or the resident?
2. Do your residents or their families do independent research when faced with significant (or not so significant) medical decisions?
3. How much involvement to you or someone in your senior community, have in making significant medical decisions?
4. Do you find that well informed residents and family members make better decisions?
5. Does having good information result in better medical outcomes?
6. Do you find it easier or harder to work with well informed families and residents?
