Content area
Full Text
The concept of person-centered care (PCC) is not new to nursing; its origins can be traced to Florence Nightingale in the 1800s. PCC gained traction in the medical community via a paradigmatic shift from a provider-driven, disease-focused model of care to a person-driven, holistic model of care in the 1960s (Groene, 2011). The adoption of PCC in the medical community encouraged innovations in practice and research, especially for older adults and people with dementia (Kitwood, 1998), which translated into the “culture change movement” (p. 1396) for nursing home reform in the 1980s and 1990s (Li & Porock, 2014). Today, the culture change movement has spread across care settings and beckoned nurses back to their roots as the planning, coordination, and delivery of PCC are major responsibilities of nurses (American Nurses Association [ANA], 2019). The aim of the current review is to describe and define PCC from a gerontological nursing perspective and present setting-specific approaches and outcomes of person-centered nursing practice.
Definition and Attributes of Person-Centered Care
The term PCC is often used interchangeably with patient-centered care, resident and family–centered care, and person-focused care as described by Kogan et al. (2016). Each of these concepts comes with a unique perspective on the “person” and their relationship to care providers (Kogan et al., 2016; Kumar & Chattu, 2018). Despite differences in perspectives, the underlying tenets of these terms aim to expand care beyond medical conditions or illness, including people's social, physical, mental, and emotional goals and needs (Kumar & Chattu, 2018).
To clarify PCC terminology and conceptualization for gerontological care and research, the American Geriatrics Society (AGS; 2016) convened an interdisciplinary task force to establish a comprehensive definition of PCC for older adults. The task force defined PCC as an interdisciplinary shared decision-making process where “individuals' values and preferences… guide all aspects of their health care, to support their realistic health and life goals…through a dynamic relationship among individuals, others who are important to them, and all relevant providers” (AGS, 2016, p. 2). The task force also operationalized essential elements or PCC practices. The AGS definition and essential elements have become the standard in defining and operationalizing PCC...