Community Care of Frail Elders in Cross-cultural Settings: A Team-based Approach (2015-2016)

This project team investigated the formal and informal caregiving arrangements and needs of Chinese elders who are community-residing and experiencing cognitive or physical decline. Team members aimed to develop interventions to support and optimize caregiving for older adults through a holistic understanding of the different socio-politico-economic contexts of care delivery. They worked on developing an interdisciplinary curriculum to educate the health care workforce that is needed to provide long-term care in developing countries. This curriculum can be used for degree and non-degree programs at Duke Kunshan University and other academic settings in developing countries.

The team pursued fieldwork in Shanghai, China, in Summer 2015 to understand how well dementia patients were being cared for and to explore the barriers to care among the healthcare providers.

In November 2015, team members shared findings at the Gerontological Society of America annual meeting.

Team member Yuting Song received a Bass Connections follow-on grant to build on her experience through a capstone research project. Mentored by Kirsten Corazzini, Bei Wu and Ellie McConnell, she extended the target population of her Bass Connections project team to include frail elders in residential care facilities in China. Her research aims were to describe the care needs of Chinese older adults who live in residential care facilities and experience cognitive and/or physical decline, and to explore the feasibility of using the Chinese version of the Social Convoy Questionnaire to measure the residents’ social networks within the care facilities.

Timing

Summer 2015 – Summer 2016

Team Outcomes

Hanzhang Xu, Paulin Straughan, Wei Pan, Bei Wu. 2016. “Validating a Scale of Health Beliefs in Preventive Health Screenings Among Chinese Older Adults.” Journal of Transcultural Nursing.

Participation at the 68th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, Orlando, FL, November 2015

  • Building Capacity for High Quality Long-Term Care: Assessment and Care Planning (symposium chaired by Kristen Corazzini)
  • Long-Term Care in China: Perspective from Older Adults, Staff, and Paid Domestic Helpers (symposium chaired by Bei Wu)
  • Resident Challenges with Daily Life in Chinese Nursing Homes: A Mixed Method’s Pilot Study (paper presented by Yuting Song and Kristen Corazzini)
  • Domestic Helpers Caring for Older Adults in China: A Systematic Review (paper presented by Jing Wang and Bei Wu)
  • Challenges Facing Older Adults in Their Adaptation to Residential Life in China’s Long-Term Care Facilities (paper presented by Jing Wang and Bei Wu)
  • Changes of Cognitive Function Among Chinese Older Adults: The Impact of Migration (paper presented by Hanzhang Xu and Bei Wu)

This Team in the News

These Ph.D. Graduates Played Key Roles in Their Bass Connections Projects

How Can We Improve Care for Nursing Home Residents?

Six Students Receive Grants to Extend Their Bass Connections Research

Several DUSON Faculty, Staff and Students Participate at GSA Annual Meeting

Inspired to Provide Preventive Care

Doctoral Certificate Is Global Health Gateway for Nursing PhD Students

Hanzhang Xu: My Bass Connections Pathway

SOLsters & Projects (Tina Chen)

Yuting Song, PhD in Nursing

This Bass Connections project is about dementia care needs among older adults who live in a community setting. We do both quantitative and qualitative data collection because sometimes numbers can’t tell the whole story. —Hanzhang Xu

See earlier related team, Community Care of Frail Elders in Cross-cultural Settings: A Team-based Approach (2014-2015).

Team Leaders

  • Bei Wu, School of Nursing

/graduate Team Members

  • Shaoqing Ge, Nursing-PHD
  • Yuzhu Li, East Asian Studies-AM
  • Kyle Smith, Nurse Anesthetist-MSN
  • Yuting Song, Nursing-PHD
  • Jing Wang, Neurobiology-PHD
  • Hanzhang Xu, Nursing-PHD

/undergraduate Team Members

  • Tina Chen, Computer Science (AB)
  • Jiakun Xu, Economics (BS), Global Health (AB2)
  • Jiaqin (Jaslyn) Zhang, Statistical Science (BS), Computer Science (AB2)

/yfaculty/staff Team Members

  • Kirsten Corazzini, School of Nursing
  • Eleanor McConnell, School of Nursing
  • Truls Ostbye, School of Medicine-Family Medicine and Community Health
  • Frank Sloan, Arts & Sciences-Economics

Theme(s):