Exploring care for human service profession'

Description

Maintaining dignity in vulnerability
Aim To explore the meaning of maintaining dignity in eldercare from the perspective of nursing home residents.
Background. Elderly people living in nursing homes are exposed to diverse situations which may be associated with loss of dignity. To help them maintain their dignity, it is important to explore, how dignity is maintained in such situations. Views of dignity and factors influencing dignity have been studied from both the nursing homes residents´ and the care providers´ perspective. However, little is known about how the residents’ experience their dignity is maintained and promoted within their day-to-day lives.
Method. This qualitative study has an explorative design, based on qualitative individual research interviews. Twenty-eight nursing home residents were included from six nursing homes in Scandinavia. A phenomenological-hermeneutic approach, inspired by Ricoeur was used to understand the meaning of the narrated text.
Findings. The residents provided details of experiences on maintaining dignity
constituted in a sense of vulnerability. The overall theme was: Being able to be involved in one´s world and the subthemes were. Finding a way to manage one´s situation and preserving a positive body-image; being in control and valued as a person one is and wants to become; building relationships and utilize the possibilities.
Conclusion. The results reveal that maintaining dignity from the perspective of the resident was not an issue of losses per se, but an ability to withstand, integrate or handle potential treats to the self and being involved with one´s world.

Keywords Dignity, nursing home, older people, vulnerability, phenomenological-hermeneutic



Oral præsentation

Period	Mar 2015
Event title	Exploring care for human service profession'
Event type	Conference
Location	København, DenmarkShow on map