Conversational Behavior in Two Health Care Institutions for the Elderly

Abstract

This article develops a perspective for studying conversational behavior in geriatric institutions. The discussion first considers why conversation is a theoretically significant focus for communications researchers concerned with the aged, and then the article presents data from ethnographic studies of two nursing facilities. Symbolic interactionism underlies the analyses discussed here, for it is suggested that conversations are a means by which interactants communicate about (and so, "construct") their social reality, their relative social statuses, etc. The importance of conversational (more broadly, communicational) behavior for staff-patient relationships in nursing homes is especially highlighted by the data, which were collected over a fifteen-month period.

Windows to their World: The Effect of Sensory Impairments on Social Engagement and Activity Time in Nursing Home Residents

“…Communication is therefore viewed as a personal act occurring in a psychological, social and physical panorama" (p. 405). Sigman (1985) adds that institutional expectations, and norms of staff/resident communication may help shape residents' experiences inside the institution. For example, if residents perceive staff members as "too busy to talk," they might not initiate conversations or build relationships in the institution.…”

Indirect Interventions to Facilitate Communication in Alzheimer's Disease

“…Typically, these professional caregivers are nurses' aides, who receive modest pay for their services and little in the way of education regarding communication changes that occur in AD and how to modify the style of their communication to benefit the AD patient. In addition, social communication may be infrequent between professional caregivers and individuals with AD, 11 so that family visits and activities are important for stimulating communication and decreasing social isolation among nursing home residents with dementia.…”

The Effects of Listening Training on Nursing Home Assistants: Residents' Satisfaction with and Perceptions of Assistants' Listening Behavior

“…In a similar study, Lubinski (1995) discovered that there was little communicative interaction of any type in nursing homes and he noted that "communication, when it occur(red), was likely to be impoverished" (p. 9). Lack of communicative interaction between residents and staff in nursing homes is often related to the staff's busy schedule (Sigman, 1985). Nursing home staff members take care of the formal medical requirements of the elderly and see to the daily operation of the facility, which allows little time for socialization with patients (Bowker, 1982).…”