Speakers
Description
The function of organizational structures in nursing homes is to guarantee that the vulnerable residents are cared for and protected in an efficient manner. Programs to promote physical activity, however, are rarely explicitly anchored in the organizational structures of nursing homes. The overall goal of the current paper is to analyze whether a participatory organizational consulting approach can lead to the sustainable implementation of PA promoting structures in nursing homes.
This study is part of the BaSAlt project, a participatory research project in nursing homes (BMG, 2019-2022; Thiel et al., 2021). To foster the implementation of activity-enhancing structures, fourteen “future workshops” in seven nursing homes were conducted. In order to analyze activity-related organizational and behavioral change, 823 hours of participant observation took place. The resulting documents and ethnographic fieldnotes were systematically evaluated, using Kim's OADI-SMM Model (Kim, 1993) to illustrate different single and double loop learning processes at the individual and organizational levels.
In the future workshops, participants developed 28 activity promoting measures. A sustainable implementation of the measures requires learning processes on different levels. The probably most relevant change refers to the “mental models” of the nursing homes. In order to guarantee that PA promoting activities (e.g. baking, bowling, gymnastics, housekeeping activities) are actually implemented on a permanent basis, nursing homes have to see themselves as activating instead of purely caring facilities.
Participatory approaches can initiate organizational learning processes towards physical activity promotion. To guarantee sustainability, these learning processes have to start at the basic organizational self-conception.
