Swiss Nursing Homes Human Resources Project (SHURP): protocol of an observational study

To explore the relationships among various nursing homes characteristics including work environment, careworker outcomes and resident outcomes in Swiss nursing homes.; In Switzerland, a growing number of older people live in nursing homes. Although research has addressed the issue of quality of nursing care in such facilities, few have integrated a range of interrelated factors that may influence the quality and safety of residential care. The Swiss Nursing Homes Human Resources Project will comprehensively assess key organizational factors, their interrelationships and the associations between these factors and careworker and resident outcomes.; Cross-sectional design.; Three-year multi-centre study (2011-2013) including a representative sample of approximately 160 nursing homes across the three language regions in Switzerland. Survey data will come from approximately 6000 careworkers and 160 administrators. Survey questionnaires will include variables on organizational facility characteristics and resident outcomes, careworker socio-demographic and professional characteristics, the quality of their work environments, resident safety climates and careworker outcomes. Appropriate descriptive and comparative analysis will be used and multivariate and multilevel analyses will be applied to examine the relationships among the various factors including quality of the work environment, safety climate, work stressors, rationing of care, workload, careworker and resident characteristics, as well as resident and careworker outcomes.; The study results will contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the interrelationships between key organizational factors and resident/careworker outcomes and will also support planning and conducting interventions to improve quality of care concerning organizational factors affecting careworkers in daily practice.