Assistant Professor, Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Assistant Professor (cross-appointed), Institute for Life Course and Aging, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
J Aging Soc Policy. 2021 Jul-Oct;33(4-5):539-554. doi: 10.1080/08959420.2021.1927620. Epub 2021 Jul 18.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed persistent inequities in the long-term care sector and brought strict social/physical distancing distancing and public health quarantine guidelines that inadvertently put long-term care residents at risk for social isolation and loneliness. Virtual communication and technologies have come to the forefront as the primary mode for residents to maintain connections with their loved ones and the outside world; yet, many long-term care homes do not have the technological capabilities to support modern day technologies. There is an urgent need to replace antiquated technological infrastructures to enable person-centered care and prevent potentially irreversible cognitive and psychological declines by ensuring residents are able to maintain important relationships with their family and friends. To this end, we provide five technological recommendations to support the ethos of person-centered care in residential long-term care homes during the pandemic and in a post-COVID-19 pandemic world.
COVID-19 大流行暴露了长期护理部门长期存在的不平等现象，并带来了严格的社会/身体距离和公共卫生检疫准则，这些准则无意中使长期护理居民面临社交隔离和孤独的风险。虚拟沟通和技术已成为居民与亲人及外界保持联系的主要方式；然而，许多长期护理院没有技术能力来支持现代技术。迫切需要更换过时的技术基础设施，以实现以患者为中心的护理，并通过确保居民能够与家人和朋友保持重要关系来防止潜在的不可逆转的认知和心理衰退。为此，我们提供了五项技术建议，以支持大流行期间和 COVID-19 大流行后的长期护理院以患者为中心的护理精神。
