Publication Highlights | March - April 2025

Improving and supporting quality of care in Dutch nursing homes: a quantitative study

Authors: Bellis van den Berg, Marrit B. Zuure, Paulien Vermunt, Mariëlle Zondervan-Zwijnenburg & Mirella Minkman

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Bellis van den Berg, monitoring and impact expert at Vilans evaluated the nationwide 'Dignity and Pride at every Facility' (D&PF) program in close collaboration with her colleagues. D&PF is a Dutch national improvement program aimed at helping nursing homes to raise their quality of care through structured evaluation, coaching and team development. In this quantitative study, a total of 331 facilities participated, each completing a quality scan based on the national quality framework for nursing home care launched in 2017 which outlines eight themes as illustrated in the figure above.

Following the quality scan, some nursing homes received tailored support from external coaches. After 9 to 24 months, follow-up assessments showed statistically significant improvements across all quality themes, with the most progress in organizations that received external coaching. The analysis also found strong links between internal organizational conditions - like staff responsiveness and a supportive learning culture - and outcomes such as person-centered care, safety, and resident well-being. The findings underscore the need to invest not only in local improvements but also in supportive conditions such as team capacity and reflective leadership.

Conceptualizing the learning organization in nursing homes: a scoping review

Authors: Claríska van Biessum, Bellis van den Berg, Kim van Erp, Paulien Vermunt, Johannes Ket, Henk Nies & Bianca Beersma

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Clariska van Biessum, a PhD candidate and researcher at Vilans conducted together with her colleagues a scoping review on how the concept of a 'learning organization' applies to nursing homes. Fourteen international studies were analysed to identify how continuous learning is conceptualized, organized, and applied in residential elderly care.

The review reveals six recurring elements across the literature: 

1. individual and team learning
2. interpersonal competence
3. leadership
4. an adaptive culture
5. knowledge development
6. systems thinking

However, few studies offered a clear operational definition or context-specific application for nursing homes. The authors argue that developing a practical, context-aware model of learning organizations could support care homes in addressing workforce development and ongoing care complexity.

The renewed development model for integrated care: a systematic review and model update

Authors: Mirella M. N. Minkman, Nick Zonneveld, Kirsten Hulsebos, Marloes van der Spoel & Roelof Ettema

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The Development Model for Integrated Care (DMIC) was originally developed in 2009 as part of the PhD thesis of Prof. dr. Mirella Minkman, the chairperson of Vilans and an endowed professor at Tilburg university. DMIC has been used across Europe to guide collaboration between health and social care organizations. In this 2025 update, the authors conducted a systematic review of 179 peer reviewed studies to refine the model’s content.

The revised DMIC introduces 20 new elements across nine thematic clusters. Key additions include more emphasis on the client’s social network, preventive and lifespan-oriented care, the growing role of digital coordination, values and ethics and interorganizational collaboration beyond traditional boundaries.

These changes reflect the shifting landscape of care systems – from institutional service delivery to interconnected, person-centered networks. The updated model offers an expanded, evidence-based framework for professionals and policymakers aiming to redesign integrated care in light of today's challenges. As Prof. dr. Minkman noted in her social media post, the model continues to offer ‘anchoring in complexity’ – serving as a practical tool for developing action plans, reflecting on partnership dynamics and adapting care systems to change societal needs.

A field study to explore user experiences with socially assistive robots for older adults

Authors: Bob M. Hofstede, Sima Ipakchian Askari, Dirk Lukkien, Laëtitia Gosetto, Janna W. Alberts, Ephrem Tesfay, Minke ter Stal, Tom van Hoesel, Raymond H. Cuijpers, Martijn H. Vastenburg, Roberta Bevilacqua, Giulio Amabili, Arianna Margaritini, Marco Benadduci, Julie Guebey, Mohamed Amine Trabelsi, Ilaria Ciuffreda, Sara Casaccia, Wijnand IJsselsteijn, Gian Marco Revel, Henk Herman Nap

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Bob Hofstede, a PhD candidate and digital care researcher at Vilans conducted this field study in collaboration with his colleagues and fellow researchers from abroad. The study explored how older adults, informal caregivers, and formal care professionals experienced the use of socially assistive robots (SARs) in real-world home settings across the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Italy. Participants interacted with SARs over two to six weeks, and researchers conducted interviews at three time points.

Six themes emerged as key to user experience: personalisation, interactivity, embodiment, connectedness, ethical considerations, and dignity. Participants emphasized that meaningful interaction – beyond functionality – was essential for building trust and acceptance. The study calls for co-design approaches involving all user groups and stresses the importance of testing SARs in daily environments, not just in lab simulations. The findings offer design directions for ethical, user-aligned robotics in aging care.

Is a stimulating work environment related to job satisfaction and retention among care professionals? A cross-sectional study in Dutch nursing homes

Authors: Bellis van den Berg, Yael Reijmer, Karin Kee, Henk Nies, Bianca Beersma and Marielle Zondervan-Zwijnenburg

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This study aimed to examine how care professionals of different occupational groups perceive organizational conditions for voice behavior and whether these conditions are related to job satisfaction and retention as was experienced at NH facilities. For this purpose data from an online survey among care professionals, (middle) managers, and policy officers of 175 Dutch nursing home (NH) facilities (N= 3,932 respondents) were analyzed. Organizational conditions were clustered into four categories: dealing with incidents, formal opportunities, supportive management, and teams’ improvement orientation.

The results showed that certified nurse assistants and registered nurses were more critical about the organizational conditions than other respondents from the same NH facility. Organizational conditions were positively related to job satisfaction and perceived employee retention (p<.001). Hierarchical multiple regression models show that ‘teams’ improvement orientation’ and ‘supportive management’ are strong independent predictors of job satisfaction and perceived employee retention (p<.001).

These results show that it is important that leaders in health care organizations realize that their own perspectives may not correspond with those of frontline care workers. This emphasizes the importance of capturing different perspectives on organizational conditions and the important role of middle managers who are in the position to create stimulating working environments to retain care professionals for NH care.