Is the experience of meaningful activities understood in nursing homes? A qualitative study

Lack of occupation can lead to boredom, apathy, social exclusion and solitude. Occupation should incorporate meaningful activities. The aim of this study is to describe how Spanish Nursing Home residents experienced and made sense of meaningful activities. A qualitative phenomenological approach was...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geriatric nursing (New York) 2016-03, Vol.37 (2), p.110-115
Main Authors: Palacios-Ceña, Domingo, Gómez-Calero, Cristina, Cachón-Pérez, José Miguel, Velarde-García, Juan Francisco, Martínez-Piedrola, Rosa, Pérez-De-Heredia, Marta
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Activities
Activities of Daily Living
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Apathy
Boredom
Female
Geriatrics
Home health care
Human activities
Humans
Long-term care
Male
Medical research
Middle Aged
Nurses
Nursing
Nursing care
Nursing Homes
Older people
Personal Satisfaction
Qualitative Research
Quality of Life
Sampling
Sense of purpose
Social exclusion
Solitude
Structured interviews
Time use
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Summary:Lack of occupation can lead to boredom, apathy, social exclusion and solitude. Occupation should incorporate meaningful activities. The aim of this study is to describe how Spanish Nursing Home residents experienced and made sense of meaningful activities. A qualitative phenomenological approach was followed. Data were collected over an 18-month period between 2012 and 2014. Purposeful sampling was conducted with Spanish residents in nursing homes in Madrid. Data were collected using unstructured and semi-structured interviews. The data were analyzed using the Giorgi proposal. Thirty-eight residents (20 female and 18 male) participated. Three main themes describing the significance of meaningful activity in nursing homes emerged from the data: Feeling the passage of time, Seeking an occupation, and Living with restrictions. Nursing homes should strive to develop diverse and meaningful activity programs for residents in order to occupy their time and provide them with a greater sense of purpose. •Meaningful activities represent a part of the identity of the older people.•Residents encounter difficulties to perform meaningful activities.•Meaningful activities help residents to recover a sense of belonging and identity.•The nurse staff does not always accept the performance of meaningful activities.•These results should be used to design nursing occupational care programs.
ISSN:0197-4572
1528-3984
DOI:10.1016/j.gerinurse.2015.10.015