Nursing home resident abuse by staff: Exploring the dynamics

This paper explores the dynamics of nursing home (NH) resident abuse by NH staff. It presents partial findings from a grounded theory study about NH staff response to aggressive residents and focuses on NH staff not able to care for aggressive NH residents without detrimental consequences to themselves or the residents they cared for, including abuse of NH residents. Symbolic Interactionism provides the theoretical framework. Classic grounded theory approach was used to analyze data which included semi-structured interviews with NH staff and abuse investigators. Two types of abusive NH staff are identified, the reactive and sadistic abuser. Additional investigations are needed to enhance understanding of the dynamics of abuse of residents by institutional staff and to further develop prevention and intervention programs.