Understanding a person’s life story can transform dementia care by promoting a person-centered approach. Documented life stories help staff to personalize care, but further research is needed to understand their construction and usage in care practice. The aim of this study was to explore assistant nurses’ experiences of life story documentation and their practical applications in dementia care practice. Five semi-structured focus groups were conducted, and data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. The findings consisted of five themes: “Ensuring timing and accessibility when constructing a documented life story,” “Recognizing template limitations in capturing a comprehensive view of the person,” “Refining life story quality and understanding through ongoing dialogues,” “Building connection and support through insights from documented life stories,” and “Harmonizing life histories with evolving care needs in practice.” Our findings highlight the importance of a dynamic and inclusive approach to life story documentation that goes beyond rigid templates. Accessible and well-documented life stories can empower nursing staff to provide responsive and personalized care, enhancing the dignity and quality of life of people living with dementia.

Aims and Objectives

With the expanding older population, the demand for home-based aged care is increasing. While home care presents challenges, it also offers opportunities to transform aged care practices. This study, grounded in caring science and lifeworld philosophy, explores the meaning of the relationship between older women and registered nurses.

Methods

Individual interviews were conducted with 11 women receiving home care, and a focus group was held with registered nurses working in the same setting. Data were analysed using qualitative content analysis.

Results

The relationship between older women and registered nurses resembles a tapestry of emotional and physical connections, shaped by the women's vulnerability due to their dependence on care. Despite this, the women strove to be recognised as resilient and capable individuals.

Conclusion

This study highlights the evolving relationship between older women and registered nurses in home care, shaped by the interplay of vulnerability and resilience. It offers insights into the relational dynamics in home-based aged care and emphasises the importance of presence, attentiveness, and the recognition of the home as integral to the caring relationship.

Introduction: Studies of older women’s life transitions is rare but gains relevance as the aging population, with older women as the majority, expands.

Purpose: To explore the meaning of a good life for older widows with extensive home care needs.

Materials and methods: Semi-structured interviews were carried out with eleven women, aged 80 and over (82–95 years, mean 90) residing at home with extensive care needs (≥4 daily sessions, averaging 2.5–6 hours, mean 3). Data were analysed by reflexive thematic analysis.

Results: The theme “This Day in My Home, the frame of my life” reflects the women’s experience of a good life. A good day imbued them with hope, trust and security, carrying them forward with the assurance that night would usher in a new day. However, there were moments when life was merely about navigating daily challenges. During such days, the women felt trapped in time, unsafe and lonely.

Conclusion: A day at home may seem static, yet it mirrors life’s dynamism, evolving with shifting circumstances. Older widows navigate challenges while maintaining their sense of self, independence, and connection to home. These findings have implications for aged care, recognizing the multifaceted aspects of life and the centrality of home.

Introduction: Self-rated health (SRH) offers insights into the evolving health demographics of an ageing population.

Aim: To assess change in SRH from old age to very old age and their associations with health and well-being factors, and to investigate the association between SRH and survival.

Methods: All participants in the MONICA 1999 re-examination born before 1940 (n = 1595) were included in the Silver-MONICA baseline cohort. The Silver-MONICA follow-up started in 2016 included participants in the Silver-MONICA baseline cohort aged 80 years or older. Data on SRH was available for 1561 participants at baseline with 446 of them also participating in the follow-up. The follow-up examination included a wide variety of measurements and tests.

Findings: Most participants rated their health as "Quite good" (54.5 %) at baseline. Over the study period, 42.6 % had stable SRH, 40.6 % had declined, and 16.8 % had improved. Changes in SRH were at follow-up significantly associated with age, pain, nutrition, cognition, walking aid use, self-paced gait speed, lower extremity strength, independence in activities of daily living, weekly physical exercise, outdoor activity, participation in organized activities, visiting others, morale, and depressive symptoms. SRH at baseline was significantly associated with survival (p < 0.05).

Conclusion: This study demonstrates associations between changes in SRH and a multitude of health- and wellbeing-related factors, as well as a relation between survival and SRH, accentuating their relevance within the ageing population.

Background

On a daily basis, healthcare professionals deal with various ethical issues and it can be difficult to determine how to act best. Clinical ethics support (CES) has been developed to provide support for healthcare professionals dealing with complex ethical issues. A long-term perspective of participating in inter-professional dialogue and reflective-based CES sessions is seemingly sparse in the literature.

Research aim

The aim was to describe experiences of impact of Inter-professional Ethics Communication in groups (IEC) based on Habermas’ theory of communicative actions, after 6 months from the perspective of an inter-professional team.

Research design

A qualitative inductive approach was chosen, and individual interviews (n = 13) were conducted. Interview data were analysed using qualitative content analysis.ParticipantsThe participants, 10 females and two males, represented assistant nurses, registered nurses, physicians, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, welfare officers and psychologists. Each had attended at least four IEC sessions.

Ethical considerations

The study was approved by the Regional Ethical Review Board in Umeå, Sweden, and it has been undertaken in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration.

Findings

Overall, the descriptions expressed a perceived achievement of a deepened and integrated ethical awareness that increased the participants’ awareness of ethically difficult situations as well as their own ethical thinking, actions and approaches in daily work. Perspectives were shared and the team become more welded. They carried the memories of the reflections within them, which was perceived as supportive when encountered new ethically situations.

Discussion

Putting words to unarticulated thoughts may stimulate repeated reflections, leading to new insights and alternative thoughts.

Conclusion

The outcome of IEC sessions 6 months following the last session can be described as an incorporated knowledge that enables actions in ethically difficult situations based on an ethical awareness both at a ‘We-level’ and an ‘I-level’.

Background: Sustainability is an important issue in implementation processes in health care, and more knowledge is needed to facilitate improvement work in occupational therapy practice.

Aim: The aim of this study was to explore how occupational therapists experienced continuous quality improvement work based on the Occupational Therapy Intervention Process Model after 17 years.

Method: Two focus group interviews were conducted with a total of 12 occupational therapists. The data were analysed using qualitative content analysis.

Results: The analysis resulted in three themes with related subthemes describing the occupational therapists’ experiences of their model-based long-term improvement work. The themes were labelled as follows: ‘sharing a safe and well-known professional reasoning’, ‘reaching normality and empowerment’ and ‘questioning and reshaping the too safe and too well-known normality’. The model functioned as a sustainable framework both for ordinary clinical practice and for continuous improvement work.

Conclusion: By using the model, the occupational therapists had established a safe and well-known professional reasoning in which continual quality improvement work had become sustainable.

Studies that objectively investigate patterns of everyday physical activity in relation to well-being and that use measures specific to older adults are scarce. This study aimed to explore objectively measured everyday physical activity and sedentary behavior in relation to a morale measure specifically constructed for older adults. A total of 77 persons (42 women, 35 men) aged 80 years or older (84.3 ± 3.8) wore an accelerometer device for at least 5 days. Morale was measured with the Philadelphia Geriatric Center Morale Scale (PGCMS). PGCMS scores were significantly positively associated with number of steps, time spent stepping, and time spent stepping at >75 steps per minute. Sedentary behavior did not associate with PGCMS. Promoting PA in the form of walking at any intensity–or even spending time in an upright position—and in any quantity may be important for morale, or vice versa, or the influence may be bidirectional.

Aims To (1) describe experiences of home from a well-being perspective, (2) describe participant characteristics and well-being measures in relation to housing type (3) and how the aforementioned aspects may affect well-being in very old persons. Design Cross-sectional, convergent parallel-results mixed method design with semi-structured interviews analysed by qualitative content analysis, in relation to descriptive statistics and specific well-being outcome measures related to home. Methods A total of 50 persons 80 years or older living in ordinary housing were interviewed (July 2017 to November 2018) about home in relation to well-being, along with collection of participant characteristics and well-being measures related to home. Results Participants described how home had become increasingly important as it provided autonomy and acted as a social and occupational hub. However, autonomy was not unconditional, and home could also be perceived as a place of inactive solitude. Results were interpreted as relating to being in the margins of home and had a major impact on well-being. Housing type seemed of importance with higher measures of well-being for participants in single-living housing compared with those living in apartment. Conclusion Home is increasingly central to well-being in old age; however, very old persons also have to relate to being physically and mentally in the margins of being able to remain in the home. These aspects of home potentially have a major impact on well-being. Impact As very old persons living in ordinary housing will constitute a larger segment of society in coming years, aspects of home can potentially have a considerable impact on well-being for this age-group. This study describes aspects of home that contribute to, or has adverse impact on well-being. These aspects need thorough consideration in policy-making and planning of health care that can affect experiences of home.

Background

Agile projects are statistically more likely to succeed then waterfall projects. The overall aim of this study was to explore the nursing staffs’ experiences with an agile development process, from its initial requirements to the deployment of its outcome of ICT solutions aimed at supporting discharge planning.

Methods

An explorative design with quantitative and qualitative methods was used. Qualitative data was collected through seven focus group interviews. Quantitative data was collected via an ICT-system, and with an evaluation form submitted by fourteen registered nurses and nine district nurses.

Results

Qualitative result of the experiences with the agile development process and its outcome resulted in one theme, four categories, and ten subcategories. The theme was found to be about time and timing, namely the amount of time for the different activities and the timing of activities within and between organisations. The agile development process increased the participants’ readiness for change by offering time to learn, practice, engage and reflect, and then adopt the ICT as a support to daily practice. Quantitative results showed a variated adoption of the ICT.

Conclusion

There is a need for time to prepare, understand and adopt new tools, services and procedures and a need for additional time to prepare, understand and adopt the new among individuals, collectives, organizations, and sometimes even between different collectives or organizations. The agile development process offered the end-users involvement through the development process, which gave them time to change it both individually and collectively. However, there is a need for close collaboration between the development project team and management to reach an organizational change that is timely for both the individual and the collective change. When time or timing fails in the development or implementation process, there is a huge risk of non-adoption of new tools, services, or procedures or among the end-users.

An increasing number of people are growing older and living longer in their homes. This study aims to describe key stakeholders’ (politicians, managers, and professionals) perceptions of a good life for single-living oldest old persons living at home with extensive needs for support. Inter­views with stakeholders were analysed with content analysis. The analy­sis resulted in the theme: An incongruence between intentions and actions in promoting a good life for the oldest old. Our findings show a gap between intentions and actions, which caused feelings of powerlessness in the key stakeholders. To promote a good life for the oldest old persons, a congruence is needed between individual awareness and the prerequisite of promoting a good life. Developing methods that identify and bridge gaps between intentions and actions could support the abilities of organ­isations to promote a good life for the oldest old persons with extensive needs for support.