Staff attitudes: monitoring technology in long-term care

1. Overall, care staff members displayed positive attitudes toward resident monitoring technologies, especially staff members working in facilities with more of this technology. 2. It is necessary to place nurses and other front-line health care workers in the center of the policymaking process that determines the technological versus human composition of any long-term care facility. 3. The ethnicity of the health care worker, and to a lesser extent their age and education, are more important than the job status in determining attitudes toward monitoring technology. 4. Comprehensive evaluations of technology used in care facilities should include the overall value of the technology, its impact on a facility's liability, its effect on the quality of care on residents, and whether use of the devices in question is ethical.