Honoring Individual Choice in Long-Term Residential Communities When It Involves Risk: A Person-Centered Approach

Nursing homes that are working on adopting person-centered care (PCC) practices express concerns about giving residents the freedom to make their own decisions and the accompanying risks. This challenge is especially true for those who are at the beginning of the PCC change process. Although the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services regulations are clear that residents have the right to a dignified existence and self-determination, and that the facility must protect and promote their rights, examples abound of care communities coercing, cajoling, or requiring residents to do things they do not want to do (e.g., take medications), or the reverse of not letting them do what they want (e.g., eat a regular diet). The current article discusses a process that helps care communities follow the regulations about education and offering choices while honoring resident preferences and documenting the process for surveyors. [Journal of Gerontological Nursing, 42(8), 12-17.].