An environmental scan of an aged care workplace using the PARiHS model: assessing preparedness for change

The environmental scan aimed to deepen our understanding of the aged care work culture and to ascertain the readiness of the workers to advance towards team-based quality care provision.

The workplace context was a high-care unit within a large residential aged care facility.

We used the Promoting Action on Research Implementation in Health Services (PARiHS) framework to assess workplace readiness via interviews, individual surveys and observation of practice.

A profile of current culture emerged as mutually supportive and task focused, but at the same time lacking corporate team features of shared decision-making and feedback for practice improvement. However, latent within the frontline leaders and personal care staff, there was evidence of some embedded knowledge and capacity for corporate team performance.

This study has validated an evidence-based method for conducting environmental scanning in aged care, recommended before any major change is introduced.

Environmental scanning helps gauge workforce capacity and limitations; this information can enable managers to capitalize on identified cultural strengths to fortify change and avoid pitfalls of personal and collective vulnerabilities.