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A systematic review of observational studies of adult home care

Leverton, M; Burton, A; Rees, J; Rapaport, P; Manthorpe, J; Downs, M; Beresford-Dent, J; (2019) A systematic review of observational studies of adult home care. Health and Social Care in the Community , 27 (6) pp. 1388-1400. 10.1111/hsc.12831. Green open access

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Abstract

The home‐care workforce is in high demand globally. Home‐care workers provide care for people at home, including practical and personal care, as well as other tasks such as medication management. We conducted a systematic review with the aims of understanding methods of observation that have been employed to study home care and to explore how these methods have enabled researchers to understand the quality of home care. We searched the literature using PubMed and CINAHL databases in May 2018, with no limits applied to date of publication. We searched for MeSH terms of ‘Home Care Services’, ‘Home Health Care’, ‘Home Nursing’ and ‘Observation*’. Across 15 eligible studies, the types of observation methods employed were categorised as structured, guided and unstructured. The characteristics of these methods, such as the level of participation adopted by the observer, varied across the studies. Three themes were developed through a narrative synthesis of the included studies’ findings: ‘The impact of care delivery and organisational factors’, ‘Observing relationships and communications’, and ‘People and places behind closed doors’. We conclude that methods of observation are a fairly novel, yet rich and meaningful way of exploring home‐care practice. Researchers undertaking observations should consider elements such as the number of researchers observing and the potential for variations, how and when to record the observations, possible triangulation of data, the researcher's reflective stance as an observer, as well as ethical considerations.

Type: Article
Title: A systematic review of observational studies of adult home care
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1111/hsc.12831
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1111/hsc.12831
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
Keywords: community, ethnography, home care, observation, systematic review
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Division of Psychiatry
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health > Behavioural Science and Health
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10081886
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