We have to turn a transatlantic liner—Leaders' perspectives on creating a meaningful life for older persons receiving municipal care

Abstract

AimsTo describe leaders’ perspectives on what is important to create a meaningful daily life for older persons receiving municipal elderly care.DesignThis study combined the Participatory Appreciative Action Reflection approach and qualitative methods.MethodsFocus Group Discussions were performed with eighty leaders that was analysed with qualitative content analysis.ResultsOne overall theme emerged “We have to turn a transatlantic liner”. The leaders proposed a need to change from an institutional care to a more person‐centered care approach on all levels of the healthcare system. This meant that everyone in the organization needed to think outside the box and find new ways to provide care to older persons. They needed to hire the right persons with the right values and knowledge. The leaders would need to provide for and support staff empowerment. There was also a need to see the older person and their relatives as co‐participants.No Patient or Public Contribution.

Nurse assistants' experiences and knowledge of how they create a meaningful daily life for older persons receiving municipal home healthcare

“…There were shared values and perspectives in all the studies of the project about the importance of a meaningful daily life for older people, in which the older person is the main character, who can make decisions to get a meaningful life [11,21,22,[24][25][26]. This is also in line with guidelines [9] and legislation for healthcare in Sweden, which stress the importance of self-determination for the individual [1,2,36].…”

“…Reciprocity is important and it is something that is built together, because as humans we exist only in relation to other people, and it is through reciprocity that we can understand what it means to be human [32,33]. The creation of the reciprocal relationship for a meaningful daily life also runs as a red thread through the studies in the project [11,21,22,[24][25][26] as well as in other studies [18,19,34,35]. It can be seen as a partnership between older people and healthcare professionals, where they are working together to manage everyday life [35] to co-create care.…”

“…They discussed what gives them joy and they talked about their everyday lives, which could create closeness. In the different visits, they had ongoing conversations, and this was also was common in the other studies in the project [11,21,22,[24][25][26]. It is by remembering what was and considering where we will be through conversations and our life stories that we as human beings find our existence [37].…”

“…Leaders in municipal elderly care described the importance of agreeing on what a meaningful daily life is for the older persons and working together to find a common attitude. According to them, future success depends on the vision that exists for elderly care [21,22].…”

“…To succeed with the implementation of the guidelines, there is a need for a shared common vision among all stakeholders involved [23] regarding what constitutes a meaningful daily life for older people in municipal care. What constitutes a meaningful daily life for older persons in municipal care has been studied among older people [24,25], relatives [26], NAs working in nursing homes [11] and leaders [21,22]. However, there is lack of knowledge regarding the NAs' perspectives when working in the older person's own home.…”