THE STRUCTURE
4.2.3 FINDINGS FROM THE ELDERLY RESIDENTS
Findings under the frail care unit of Case One included socio-demographic data and the main interview schedule. The findings followed the "outcome" of the study's conceptual framework. The data were elicited through demographic data and interview. Five themes emerged from the data: reasons for admission, interactive relationship, response shift, receiving visitors and satisfaction with care.
4.2.3.1 Findings from interview with elderly residents and observation
The demographic variables of interest were age, gender, cultural group and marital status.
The ages of participants ranged from 60 to 85 years. In relation to gender distribution, four were females. Regarding cultural group, they were all from the white race, who were engaged and widowed. A summary of the qualitative findings are presented in Table 4.3.
Four themes emerged from the data namely; perceived care giver stress, interaction with staff and residents, receiving visitors and satisfaction with care
Table 4.2: Interview with elderly residents and observation
Concepts from the Emerging Themes Data Sources
Conceptual Framework
OUTCOME Reasons for Admission Individual interview Experiences of the Elderly Interactive Relationship Observation
Response Shift Receiving Visitors Satisfaction with Care
4.2.3.2 Reasons for admission
The reasons for admission into the RCF were varied. One participant reported that she was staying with her brother and his family in the same flat and due to social reasons, she chose the RCF as a way of preventing perceived care giving stress as indicated by the following quotes:
My sister-in-law and my brother were also living in the house and they were having a baby, so they had to get up for me; so I said to them even before they had the baby, I think it will be better I stayed somewhere else because I knew it would be stressful to look after me and the baby at the same time. (By Participant
#1)
Two participants reported that they were staying in another RCF for younger people until they became senior citizens and they were asked to transfer to another facility as illustrated below:
I was transferred from Sherwood Center because I was too old to stay there. (By Participant #4)
I was living at Wentworth, in a children's home and because of my age, I had to relocate here. At that time, I was still younger than 60 years. (By Participant # 5) Another participant reported that he lacked family support because his mother was too old to care for him, and his siblings were also busy working. One female participant
ability. As the result, she was taken to Town Hill (mental health facility) where she stayed for many years, until she was discharged to the current RCF. Another participant reported that she was admitted due to her physical disability that her family could not cope with.
4.2.3.3 Interactive relationship
The participants reported that they were all happy at the RCF because the nursing staff members were always very good to them and assisted them with all their needs. While the researcher observed many positive interactions between the staff and the residents, one participant however had this complaint: "They shout and scream; they are full of nonsense".
The participant further reported that their own attitude towards the nursing staff was generally friendly. Nevertheless, one of them stated that his attitude towards them was sometimes unfriendly as illustrated below:
I turn them ojf; I tell them
if
they don't stop I will sort them out, but sometimes I can talk to them nicely. (By participant #4)4.2.3.4 Response shift
Some participants reported that they suffer many health-related problems including inability to stand and walk. They also complained about having various medical conditions that require taking 4-5 tablets daily. However, the participants seemed to have accepted those conditions despite the seriousness. They appeared to have constructed
meanings from their health conditions, and seemed to have adapted to the changes in their circumstances, as depicted by one of the participants below:
My health is good, only that I suffer from blood pressure and my bladder is prolapsed.
Despite their poor health, the participants reported that they were well taken care of by
the nurses, and that their current health status did not in any way affect the care that they receIve.
4.2.3.5 Receiving visitors
Most of the participants reported that they did not have any living siblings, although few of them still had some families alive. Some of them reported that they received many visitors weekly, while others got none. Many of the participants who reported having children also expressed regret that their children did not visit them as often as they expected. Receiving visitors seemed an important aspect of their wellbeing, as reported below:
I do not get any visitor; sometimes my one son and daughter come to visit, but other times they do not come at all. (By participant # 1)
My brother visits me once every Sunday and I am happy. (By participant #2)
Living away from one's biological family appeared to affect different participants in different ways. For some participants, living away from one's family of origin was acceptable as long as family members visited regularly;
I am happy to live away from my brother. As long as he sees me once a week on
One participant responded to living away from the family with tears: "1 miss them a lot. 1 have been crying for my sister many times". (By participant # 3)
4.2.3.6 Satisfaction with care
Some of the participants reported they were satisfied staying in the RCF. Despite their current health status, many of them reported they were satisfied as long as they were visited by relatives or friends. However, one participant reported paradoxically that while she was not satisfied to live away from her family, she continued to reside in the current RCF because her fiancee who is also a resident of that RCF loves and cares for her:
I'm not satisfied, but I can't go away. All I've got is love and affection from my fiancee, and 1 get stuffs like coffee, biscuits, cakes or something like that from
him.
Most participants did not see the need for any changes to be implemented in the RCF because in their view, everything was just [me. However, some of them wished love and happiness for all, while those who ascribed to Christianity wished that every resident would go to Church.
The above findings were obtained of the experiences of the elderly under three themes, namely: interaction between staff and residents, receiving visitors and satisfaction with care. In the next section, the researcher presents findings of ten nursing staff who participated in completing the questionnaire on the quantitative aspect of Case One.