In search for the “humane”: staffs’ perspectives on everyday activities in a nursing home

Abstract

Objectives: To better understand how a dialogue about the influence of nursing home residents on their everyday activities evolve among diverse practitioners and to identify the consequences of such an understanding in practice. Methods: Inspired by a collaborative approach, five workshops, one focus group and follow up interviews were conducted. The participants were 19 diverse practitioners. Analysis followed a dialogical approach. Findings: Tensions, opportunities and challenges were articulated and discussed during the workshops and are developed in: a) Bypassing the "humane"? The dilemma between using shields preventing engagement or acting in a clandestine manner b)"What is our stance?" Seeking common ground on which to stand regarding everyday activities and c) Recognising expertise and seeking connections. Discussion: For the staff, acting in a clandestine manner seems to create ways of enabling "humane" practices towards nursing home residents. The "clandestine manners" seem to be grounded in an effort on the part of the staff to make sense of the everyday activities for the nursing home residents. These "clandestine manners" could be seen as responses to institutional routines and a lack of common ground on the understanding of everyday activities in the context of nursing homes.

“Doing hope” as a possible way towards a responsive occupational science

“…This in-betweenness has helped me to initiate or enter spaces as new sites for collaboration and contestation, in the act of defying hegemonic ideas of society and creating other grounds (Bhabha, 1994;English, 2005). This approach has been useful when conducting research about the everyday life of older adults living in nursing homes immersed in a changing health care system in Sweden (Mondaca, Josephsson, Borell, et al, 2018;, Mondaca et al, 2019 and in planning psychosocial interventions for asylum seekers and refugees coming to Europe. At this point I have dared to challenge my own colonized understanding on knowledge creation, and instead applied this hybridity in my current context in new forms.…”

“…From this in-betweenness, I invite you as a reader to dialogue with some foundational scholars that imprinted my way to approach research and education. I also invite you to visit my current field of research through visiting some lessons learned with residents and staff of a nursing home in Sweden where I have been working (Mondaca, Josephsson, Borell et al, 2018;Mondaca et al, 2019). With this article, I aim to expose different ways of understanding and facing vulnerability, as a concept that needs attention within the current situations challenging European societies and societies in other parts of the globe.…”

“…In the particular nursing home where I worked for almost 4 years during my doctoral studies, one of the problems was that the everyday life of these adults was dominated by institutional routines that inhibited and constrained more familiar forms of spending time and living everyday life (Mondaca, Josephsson, Borell, et al, 2018;Mondaca et al, 2019). We approached this issue by making use of the theoretical resource of third space, borrowed from Bhabha (1994), to initiate collaborative praxis deeply grounded in the nursing home community.…”

“…We approached this issue by making use of the theoretical resource of third space, borrowed from Bhabha (1994), to initiate collaborative praxis deeply grounded in the nursing home community. The community based and collaborative approaches (Suarez-Balcazar, 2005) adopted allowed us to make an impact on people's lives, on their every day, informing, transforming, and affecting how care should be shaped if grounded in the residents' needs, dreams, and possibilities (Mondaca, Josephsson, Borell, et al, 2018;Mondaca et al, 2019). Examples of this collaborative approach were working on the creation of activity programs grounded in the nursing home residents' desires, interests, and capabilities (Mondaca, Josephsson, Borell et al, 2018) and the creation of collaborative projects with the staff working at the nursing home to promote a humanistic and occupational perspective towards their work with the residents (Mondaca et al, 2019).…”

“…Through aligning ourselves with the nursing home community, including residents and staff, we were able to reveal and maybe initiate a new culture of care, based on the idea that people can own their lives despite being in need of assistance; enabling staff to make partnerships that would help to improve the residents' lives but also the staff approach to their work with older adults. We could partially bring to the fore front and reward characteristics of everyday life such as solidarity and fellowship, to transform this institution (Mondaca, Josephsson, Borell et al, 2018;Mondaca et al, 2019), making it less oppressive. Through collaborative research, we could also address social sustainability in these contexts by starting a dialogue; training and empowering the staff in new practices of care (Mondaca et al, 2019).…”