The Staff's Perception of a Skilled Nursing Facility

In various studies of nursing homes, questions arise as to what type of institution a nursing home really is. This study examined the meaning of a skilled nursing facility to its staff through interviews with 17 staff members and with 2 residents who were interviewed to further illumine the staff data. Thematic analysis resulted in eight themes: caring, death, food, professionalism, images of the institution, policy versus what actually happens, differentiation, and integration. The data illustrated the professionalism and caring ethic of the staff, who appeared torn between the wish to care and the need for efficiency and, at the same time, the lack of a caring ethos implicit in the staff's relative silence about death and dying and the competitiveness among disciplines.