workforce
and that had a huge impact. From a research point of view, the outcome and the impact the icebreaker had was quite humbling for me. I learnt a great deal from that aspect.
The participants developed relationships with each other in ways that they hadn’ t developed before through just working with each other day to day. That solid relationship created the trust for them then to really be able to explore the issues that they wanted to in more depth.
We got tremendous feedback from the icebreaker activity and also from the action learning. People said to us:“ You’ re not coming in here telling us what to do, we’ re working this out together.”
A lot of the activities that people identified that they wanted to do to improve quality of life for residents was things that they’ d had in their mind that they wanted to do before but probably hadn’ t had the reflective space and the support from each other to actually put it into action.
For some people, it took a bit of getting used to because action learning comes with a framework, a set of rules and that idea of positive questioning. The group themselves have to learn how to reframe and ask questions of their colleagues, rather than telling their colleagues that something won’ t work. They actually use a question to help that colleague unpick the activity, refine it and improve it.
What impact do you believe the program had or will have on the care provided in the homes that took part in the project? One of the most important things is maintaining momentum. The recommendation following the three workshops that we had in each of the nursing homes was that there then needed to be an ongoing program of action learning over a 12-month period. We needed to move on to leadership development in order to sustain and maintain the program. For lots of reasons, that didn’ t occur. Often organisations go under restructures and those sorts of things. [ So ] there’ s work to be done [ around ] maintaining momentum. That then requires leadership and champions of the appreciative inquiry and the action learning approach.
The feedback I got at the time when the research was conducted [ included stories about instances ] where there was significant impact on residents, particularly residents who had dementia, who had life memory boxes developed for them, life books. One of the organisations made some significant changes in the dining room in how residents have their meals. It was reported anecdotally that some people stayed at the meal table longer and that their food intake improved.
Obviously you can’ t take a quantum leap from the evaluation we did of this program. Further research is needed [ looking at ] specific quality of life. We need to look at that in a different way and also interview residents if you’ re then making claims about improving quality of life. But I think we definitely enhanced the lives of residents and helped staff think differently about their work.
What do you hope stems from this project? Any sort of program that develops relationships that support staff to develop meaningful relationships with residents and family and any program that uses an appreciative inquiry approach. The aged-care environment is really tough. I think health professionals work extremely hard under really difficult circumstances. I don’ t think it’ s at all helpful when there’ s the constant criticism of being told you’ re not doing things well enough or properly – appreciative inquiry provides that opportunity to value-add and build on good work that’ s already being done.
Any form of workshop or nurturing of staff that values what they do, supports them to develop individual relationships with residents, to spend time with residents, that challenge some of the traditional institutional practices that often are built up in nursing homes through the necessity of running them, and any program that facilitates people to think differently is worthwhile.
Appreciative inquiry and certainly then an action learning framework helps that. ■
For more information email: w. penney @ outlook. com
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