THE STRUCTURE
4.4 CASE THREE .1 Introduction
4.4.3 FINDINGS FROM ELDERLY RESIDENTS
The findings from five elderly residents of Case Three that include socio-demographic data and data from interviews are presented. Summary of the qualitative findings are presented in Table 4.8. Four themes emerged from the data, namely reasons for admission, interactive relationship, psychosocial support and satisfaction with care.
4.4.3.1 Interviews with elderly
These findings were obtained from five elderly residents of Case Three. Data sources were demographic information and interview. The demographic variables of interest were age, gender, cultural group and marital status. The ages of the participants ranged from
83 to 90 years. In relation to gender, there were two males and three females. Regarding cultural group, they were all whites who were never married and widowed. (See Table 4.8).
Table 4.8: Interview with elderly residents and observation
Concepts from the Conceptual Emerging Themes Data Sources Framework
Experiences of the Elderly Reasons for Admission Interview
Interactive Relationship Observation of facility Psychosocial Support
Satisfaction with ReF
4.4.3.2 Reasons for admission
The reasons for admission into the ReF were varied. For example, one participant considered the ReF while figuring out where he would be in the future, and who would look after him when he became old and frail. This decision was prompted by the death of
his wife:
I was widowed and after 18 months, it seemed appropriate to come here because . all of my families live in England; thinking ahead I felt it was time to make a decision when I could make a decision about where I would go to because I have no family here. (by participant #4)
Two participants reported that they needed people to look after them in case of illness since they lacked family support. Another participant reported that although his family
participants reported that they were healthy, but two reported a number of current health- related problems including deafness and bronchitis. Although the participants were aged above 80, they did not need anyone to look after them because one of the criteria for admission to Case Three is that the elderly person is fit enough to look after him/herself.
In the preceding section, findings of the reasons for admission to the RCF were presented as reported by the residents. The reasons for admission were thinking about the future, the need for carers in case of illness and good food.
4.4.3.3 Interactive relationship
Due to the physical conditions of the residents of the frail care centre, the researcher did not observe much resident-staff interaction, except when the staff were performing the following activities including bathing, dressing, feeding and assisting them with other basic ADLs. However in the retirement home, there were relatively more people-to- people interaction involving families, friends, loved ones and well wishers or visitors.
There were also more sharing of fun and laughter in the retirement home, where the researcher observed a greater level of generosity. During data collection, the researcher noted that she was always served with food when the staff and residents were being served and she would decline and the usual response was: "You are our guest".
That happened all the time when the researcher was present during meal times. On the other hand, the environment was clean and well organized all the time.
4.4.3.4 Psychosocial support
The participants reported several means of psychosocial support that are important to them. For example, receiving visitors was reported to be important to most of the participants. Some of them occasionally invited friends for visit and they sometimes share meals with them. One participant expressed that although she gets visitors, many of her friends have passed away and only few of them are still alive. Other participants reported that staying away from their families was not a problem because they always keep in touch by phone or letters. Those residents who did not have families see their friends as their own families, while those who have lived away from their families for a long time reported that they have lost the meaning of a family as confonned by the below statement. "I've been away from family for so long and I almost forget what it's like"
4.4.3.5 Satisfaction with ReF
Majority of the participants reported total satisfaction with the RCF. Some of them reported that being able to live independently was a source of happiness for them.
Although satisfied, some residents had difficulty describing their own quality of life due to their current health-related problems, as evident below:
I don't know eh, no I don't know,' we sound happy here, but I don't know, eh, whether I will be, I mean I have problems you know, as we get older we get more problems.
The residents did not report need for any major change in the RCF, except for minor concerns as indicated by the following statements from residents:
I wish that some young people are introduced to the home.
I would like to have a garage for my motor car.
1 would like to see some trees planted because we've lost 19 trees since I have been here.
The above findings were obtained from "experiences of the elderly" under four themes, namely, "interactive relationship", ''psychosocial support" and "satisfaction with care". In the next section, the researcher presents findings from five nursing staff who participated in the quantitative aspect of Case Three.