Frail Older Persons’ Experiences of Information and Participation in Hospital Care

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to describe frail older persons’ experiences of hospital care of information and participation when being an inpatient at a hospital. A qualitative method was used. Data were collected at the hospital from 20 interviews with frail older patients, together with observations in the environment at the hospital ward. A content analysis was performed. Patients experienced not receiving information about their care and rehabilitation, or receiving such information in noisy surroundings. They experienced situations of misunderstanding related to their medication, which indicates the need for appropriate discharge calls for frail older patients. They expressed feelings of distress concerning the future, caused by hasty admissions or relatives’ problems to handle the situation. The results highlight the need to receive appropriate information and to participate in decision-making. The level of health literacy should be taken notice of when giving information, using peaceful and quiet environments when informing frail older persons. Person-centered care should be recognized to a greater extent in order for healthcare professionals to give information to frail older people in a health literacy-friendly way. This might make it easier for frail older persons to participate in a partnership in care.

Looking at Fog Computing for E-Health through the Lens of Deployment Challenges and Applications

“…Many countries are facing a considerable challenge to manage a rapidly growing aging population and the increase in chronic diseases [21,22]. The demand for medical care has risen in recent years due to the popularization of IoT smart devices, which opens a field of study for new models of delivering medical services that improve the way health information is handled.…”

Quality of Life: The Interplay between Human Behaviour, Technology and the Environment

“…In a special issue of the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health on "Quality of Life: The Interplay between Human Behaviour, Technology and the Environment", a total of eighteen papers [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] were recently published on different topics that are related to this subject matter.…”

“…Of the published papers, four papers [6][7][8][9] were on age-friendly environments, describing the relation of how the environment and technology influences people as they age. A total of seven papers [10][11][12][13][14][15][16] were published regarding how technology can support (older) people in their daily lives in various ways. Three papers [17][18][19] were published on special care environments and their design, and how the design influences the users of such environments.…”

“…The paper by Petrovčič et al [10] is the first of a series of seven papers [10][11][12][13][14][15][16] on the use of technology by community-dwelling older people, as well as in long-term care facilities and among younger cohorts. The paper presents the results from a population-based survey from Slovenia on the predictors of seniors' interest in assistive applications (apps) on smartphones.…”

“…Forsman and Svensson [13] described frail older persons' experiences of hospital care, information, and participation when being an inpatient at a hospital. Patients experienced not receiving information regarding their care and rehabilitation, or receiving such information in noisy surroundings.…”