Professionals’ self-rated quality of care and its relation to competence, national guidelines and policies - a cross-sectional study among Finnish elderly care workers

Table 1 Sample characteristics

Gender	N (%)
Female	1845 (92.4)^a
Male	87 (4.4)^a
Age (yrs)
Range	19–75
Mean	43.2
Occupational status	N (%)
Practical nurse (PN)	1499 (75.1)
Registered nurse (RN) or other bachelor level education	314 (15.7)
Head nurse, supervisor (HN)	184 (9.2)
QoC mean (SD)^b	8.14 (0.97)
Self-asessed professional competence good in
	%^d	PN^d	RN^d	HN^d	Non-institutionalized care^d	Institutionalized care^d
Pain treatment	63,7	61,6	70,9	68,5	56,2	64,4
SSDMD^c	62,0	61,6	60,5	67,0	58,0	62,9
Enhancing rehabilitation	70,1	69,7	68,5	76,2	67,2	70,1
Nutrition	67,9	69,0	63,1	67,0	67,3	67,5
Falls prevention	63,8	65,2	63,0	54,1	61,5	64,3
Palliative/end of life care	47,7	44,7	54,5	61,1	32,6	53,0
Multidimensional assessment of function	39,7	37,3	48,1	45,1	39,6	39,4
Pharmacological treatment	58,7	55,0	71,4	67,2	58,9	56,3
Have you at your workplace addressed	Yes (%)	PN^e	RN^e	HN^e	Non-institutionalized care^e	Institutionalized care^e
The Act for elderly care?	61,7	60,5	56,3	80,3	57,5	64,4
Quality recommendations?	56,9	57,6	43,5	73,2	48,7	61,1
National Memory policy?	19,3	19,7	14,8	23,6	14,2	22,1
Development program for informal care?	13,8	14,2	10,9	15,5	12,2	14,8
Prevention of home and leisure accident injuries?	17,8	17,6	17,9	19,1	20,3	17,3

^aPercentage of those who responded the question
^bQuality of care provided in the work unit on a scale from 4 (the worst) to 10 (the best)
^cSupporting the self-determination of a person with memory disorders
^dPercentage of those who assessed their competence ‘good’
^ePercentage of those who had addressed the guideline or policy

ISSN: 1472-6963