Keeping a good heart: The experience of Japanese elders in a health‐care facility for the elderly

Abstract

Aim: To clarify the experience of elderly people admitted to a health-care facility for the elderly. Methods: An ethnographic approach and qualitative descriptive design was used to understand and describe the viewpoints of the elderly living in a health-care facility. A semistructured interview was conducted in the resident's room. One at a time, the transcript of each participant's interview was read repeatedly and the parts corresponding to the participant's experience were extracted and analysed qualitatively. Results: The participants were seven elderly residents of a health-care facility for the elderly who were over 65 years of age and able to converse. The current experience of the seven elderly participants were divided into seven categories based upon the qualitative descriptive analysis: family ties, emotional response to entering the facility, rehabilitation to support independence, principles for living and getting along with others, life after leaving the facility, relationships with facility staff, and memories. An over-arching theme was also identified, 'keeping a good heart' described as following the category descriptions. Conclusions: Keeping a good heart symbolized the resilience and positive acceptance of life in the healthcare facility for the elderly.

Examining practical nursing experiences to discover ways in which to retain and invigorate the remaining functions of the elderly with a demented and complex disability in nursing homes

“…In the past decade, some research has tried to develop effective practical nursing strategies through the qualitative study of interview data (Ellis & Rawson, 2015;Hamahata et al, 2004;Kobayashi et al, 2008;Lillekroken, Hauge, & Slettebø, 2015;Liu, 2013;Oosterveld-Vlug et al, 2014). However, the results from those studies do not go much beyond a conventional framework and are difficult to apply in the field due to several critical reasons.…”

“…From this perspective, the development of specialized and practical nursing strategies, which are distinguished from conventional frameworks that focus on rehabilitative purposes, is highly desired to efficiently serve this type of complex-disability group (Carpenter, Hastie, Morris, Fries, & Ankri, 2006;Ericsson, Malmberg, Langworth, Haglund, & Almborg, 2011). Although the majority of this disability group (>40%) resides in nursing homes (National Health Insurance System, 2016) and constitutes a clear need for customized nursing guidelines and standards based on empirical knowledge, qualitative case studies to develop efficient nursing interventions that target this group have not been explored to date (Hamahata, Magilvy, Hoshino, & Komatsu, 2004;Kim, Choi, Kim, Kim, & Chang, 2016;Kobayashi, Yamamoto-Mitani, Nagata, & Murashima, 2008).…”

Resilience among Japanese atomic bomb survivors

“…Several research efforts have included cultural aspects with respect to resilience studies (Hamahata et al. 2004; Hunter 2001; Tummala‐Narra 2007; Ungar 2008).…”

Coping with the changes in living environment faced by older persons who relocate to a health‐care facility in Japan

“…Some studies on persons entering HCFEs have focused on their adaptation to the new lifestyle (Yuasa et al ., 1996), have examined self‐determination in the decision to enter a facility (Sase, 1997), and have clarified people’s experience during the time of residence (Hamahata, Magilvy, Hoshion & Komatsu, 2004). However, there have been no studies in which the lifestyle of older persons was continuously observed in the immediate period after they entered a facility to elucidate the ways such older people cope with changes in their living environment.…”