Abstract

Nurses are concerned with the quality of care given our rapidly expanding nursing home population. The negative effects of institutionalization caused partially by the homogeneity and uniformity of care led to the exploration of personal and common meanings and personal time of these residents, an area in which little is known. It is proposed that quality care should be defined by the older adult and that understanding of personal and common meanings of this population can guide the delivery of quality care that is meaningful to the individual. ;In this interpretive study, narrative inquiry in the format of a modified life review was utilized to elicit personal and common meanings embedded in the lived lives of older adults. A convenience sample of five women in a long-term care facility agreed to tell their life stories over a series of audio-taped interviews. These non-structured interviews were transcribed verbatim and the resulting texts were analyzed hermeneutically using Heideggerian phenomenology as the philosophical background to identify personal and common meanings, relational themes across texts, and constitutive patterns revealing relationships among themes. Emergent themes were validated by each participant. ;Relational themes from each story and across texts led to the emergence of three constitutive patterns: Being After Loss, Living Relatedly, and Dwelling in Remembering. These patterns reveal common themes of how these individuals live their lives everyday while the relational themes describe the uniqueness of each woman within these commonalities. For example, while all five women live in relationship, their unique comportment is revealed in themes such as living with others competitively or in a 'giving in' mode. ;Implications for nursing include the utilization of modified life review as a guide for assessment, intervention, and research which enables the discovery of new possibilities and knowledge of the 'lived life' of the older adult. Life stories reveal the everyday concerns of older adults and ensure an appreciation of 'lived time' in an environment of routine schedules and repetitive activity. Recommendations for further research are described