Spirituality among nursing home residents: a phenomenology of the experience of spirituality in late life

Nurse-patient interaction and self-transcendence: assets for a meaningful life in nursing home residents?

“…Spirituality has been perceived as a major resource for wellbeing in late life [18], particularly among frail and vulnerable older people such as NH residents [19]. As an essential aspect of spirituality, the concept of meaning-in-life is commonly addressed in the nursing literature [20] and is seen to be of importance to wellbeing in older adults [17,18,21,22], in NHs [23][24][25], and at the end of life [26][27][28].…”

“…Social relationships imbue life with meaning, whereas loneliness diminishes one's sense of meaning-in-life. The 'search for meaning and finding answers', 'feelings of support and trust', 'a perspective beyond death' [19], along with a sense of belonging [31][32][33][34] are fundamental to perceived meaning-in-life, spiritual-emotional wellbeing [35,36] and life satisfaction [37] in older adults. Perceived meaning-in-life is seen to predict life satisfaction among NH residents [38].…”

Joy‐of‐life in cognitively intact nursing home residents: the impact of the nurse–patient interaction

“…A systematic review of living well in elderly care homes identified four key themes: (i) acceptance and adaptation, (ii) connectedness with others, (iii) a homelike environment and (iv) caring practices (40). Moreover, studies have identified a sense of belonging (connectedness) as a core issue for well-being among NH residents (30,38,(41)(42)(43) pointing at 'feelings of support and trust', 'searching for meaning and finding answers' and 'a perspective beyond death' as essential to their spiritual well-being (44). Also, a sense of belonging and connectedness contributes to meaning-in-life (45,46) as well as resident satisfaction (47) and dignity (20).…”

Nurse-Patient Interaction and Self-Transcendence: Assets for a Meaningful Life in Nursing Home Residents?

“…Spirituality has been perceived as a major resource for well-being in late life (9), particularly among frail and vulnerable older people such as NH residents (10). As an essential aspect of spirituality, meaning is commonly addressed in the nursing literature (11), and is seen to be of particular importance to wellbeing and QoL in older adults (9,(12)(13)(14), in NHs (15)(16)(17)(18)(19), and at the end of life (16,(20)(21)(22)(23).…”

“…Social relationships imbue life with meaning, whereas loneliness diminishes one's sense of meaningin-life. The 'search for meaning and finding answers', 'feelings of support and trust', 'a perspective beyond death' (10), along with a sense of belonging (27)(28)(29)(30) are fundamental to perceived meaning, spiritual-emotional wellbeing (31,32) and life satisfaction (33) in older adults. Perceived meaning predicts life satisfaction among NH residents (34), and is crucial to the experience of dignity in this population (35).…”