Kejžar Anamarija, Dimovski Vlado, Colnar Simon
Faculty of Social Work, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
School of Economics and Business, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Front Psychol. 2023 Jan 19;13:1106014. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1106014. eCollection 2022.
Current management strategies in nursing homes (NH) aim to ensure effective knowledge management (KM) in order to provide both best possible services to residents, and care for staff in NH. Teamwork in NH is essential for effective delivery of the highest quality of services. As a result, NH are increasingly adopting KM activities to enable knowledge creation, storage, transfer, and implementation in an environment facing many challenges such as lack of staff, increasing demands, and expectations of residents.
In our quantitative study, we examined how two Slovenian state NH that adopted the E-Qalin quality management model (European quality-improving learning model) adapted their KM, and what impact their quality management system and KM activities actually have on the quality of services. Furthermore, we examined how two Slovenian private NH that have not adopted a certified quality management program (like ISO or E-Qalin) tackle the issue of quality of services from the KM perspective. The sample consisted of 80 nursing professionals. In every NH that is part of this study, teamwork is essential and every individual that was involved in our survey is part of a team. In our study, we analyzed relationships between individual variables using linear regression.
We found a significant and positive relationship between knowledge creation, transfer, and implementation in NH with and without the E-Qalin certificate. We found a significant and positive relationship between knowledge storage and the quality of services only in NH without a E-Qualin certificate. It seems that when connecting multidisciplinary fields such as NH and KM, there is still a lack of awareness and knowledge on the topic of KM, which might be one of the reasons for some bias in the answers provided by respondents. We also found different teamwork approaches in NH with and without a E-Qalin certificate. Our research results therefore emphasize the need to gain additional insight into quality management and KM in the environment of NH.
Teamwork based on knowledge storage, transfer, the implementation of existing knowledge, and creation of new knowledge are essential for well-trained professionals and, as a result, contribute to continuous improvement in service quality. Implementation of KM is well received by NH, and enables them to better meet the needs and expectations of residents. More importantly, nursing staff also share and pass on tacit knowledge through teamwork. Finally, all of the NH in our study that implemented quality and KM activities noted an improvement in the quality of services that are offered to residents in practice. Our results indicate that the topic of KM in NH is interesting, and it has a positive impact on the quality of services in practice. However, the problem of awareness and knowledge on the topic of KM in the environment of NH still exists, highlighting the need for further research, additional insight, and dissemination of knowledge to every interested stakeholder functioning in the field of NH. The results of the study make an important contribution to the research of KM in NH, focusing on the transfer of tacit knowledge.
养老院当前的管理策略旨在确保有效的知识管理，以便为居民提供尽可能优质的服务，并关怀养老院的工作人员。养老院中的团队合作对于高效提供最高质量的服务至关重要。因此，养老院越来越多地开展知识管理活动，以便在面临诸如人员短缺、需求增加和居民期望等诸多挑战的环境中实现知识创造、存储、转移和实施。
在我们的定量研究中，我们考察了采用E-Qalin质量管理模型（欧洲质量改进学习模型）的两家斯洛文尼亚国有养老院如何调整其知识管理，以及它们的质量管理体系和知识管理活动实际上对服务质量有何影响。此外，我们考察了两家未采用认证质量管理计划（如ISO或E-Qalin）的斯洛文尼亚私立养老院如何从知识管理的角度解决服务质量问题。样本包括80名护理专业人员。在本研究涵盖的每家养老院中，团队合作都至关重要，参与我们调查的每个人都是一个团队的成员。在我们的研究中，我们使用线性回归分析了各个变量之间的关系。
我们发现，无论有无E-Qalin认证，养老院中的知识创造、转移和实施之间都存在显著的正相关关系。我们发现，仅在没有E-Qalin认证的养老院中，知识存储与服务质量之间存在显著的正相关关系。似乎在将养老院和知识管理等多学科领域联系起来时，在知识管理主题上仍缺乏认识和了解，这可能是受访者提供的答案存在一些偏差的原因之一。我们还发现有无E-Qalin认证的养老院在团队合作方式上存在差异。因此，我们的研究结果强调有必要在养老院环境中对质量管理和知识管理进行更多的深入研究。
基于知识存储、转移、现有知识的实施以及新知识创造的团队合作对于训练有素的专业人员至关重要，从而有助于服务质量的持续提升。知识管理的实施受到养老院的欢迎，并使它们能够更好地满足居民的需求和期望。更重要的是，护理人员也通过团队合作分享和传递隐性知识。最后，我们研究中所有实施质量和知识管理活动的养老院都指出，在实际中为居民提供的服务质量有所改善。我们的结果表明，养老院中的知识管理主题很有趣，并且对实际服务质量有积极影响。然而，养老院环境中对知识管理主题的认识和了解问题仍然存在，这突出表明需要进一步研究、更多的深入洞察，并向养老院领域的每个感兴趣的利益相关者传播知识。该研究结果对养老院知识管理的研究做出了重要贡献，重点关注隐性知识的转移。
