For the first time, nursing home residents and their families are to be given the opportunity to share their views on the quality of care and support they receive.

The National Nursing Home Experience Survey gets underway on March 7. Residents in participating nursing homes and one nominated family member or friend of each resident can take part.

The HIQA survey contains over 40 questions, covering topics such as involvement in decisions, daily activities, staff, food and privacy. Participants will also have an opportunity to comment on how the Covid pandemic affected them.

It is hoped that the findings will help to identify examples of good care and pinpoint areas that need to be improved.

“We all have the right to enjoy a good quality of life and receive safe, high-quality care as we age. People who live in residential settings deserve to be treated with respect and dignity, to have their rights upheld and to be facilitated to exercise personal choice in their daily lives.

“Through this survey, the first of its kind in Ireland, we want to hear what people living in nursing homes think about the care and support they receive, what they like and what changes they would like to see,” explained HIQA’s director of health information and standards, Rachel Flynn.

A sample of nursing homes representative of all nursing homes in Ireland were invited to participate in the survey. The survey sample was created by dividing all registered nursing homes into groups based on three characteristics:

-Region (Munster, Leinster, Connacht, Ulster and Dublin)

-Centre size

-Provider type (public, private and voluntary).

Nursing homes were then randomly selected from each of these groups to take part. Those living in participating nursing homes will be invited to share their experiences of the care they receive via face-to-face interviews, which will run from March 7 until mid-May.

One family member or friend of each resident in participating nursing homes, known as a ‘designated representative’, will also receive a survey in the post this month. It can also be completed online.

The survey has been welcomed by Nursing Homes Ireland. According to its CEO, Tadhg Daly, this represents “a significant initiative to capture the voices of nursing home residents”.

The results of the National Nursing Home Experience Survey will be published at the end of 2022 on www.yourexperience.ie. Anyone interested can sign up on the website to be notified when the results are available.