The Journey Toward Taking the Day for Granted Again

Abstract

BACKGROUND: A hip fracture is an unexpected, subjective, traumatic experience that affects the person in both physical and emotional ways. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to describe rural older people's experiences of recovering after hip fracture surgery. METHODS: Thirteen individual interviews were conducted with older people. The interview texts were analyzed with qualitative content analysis. RESULTS: Patients described finding themselves in a new and vulnerable situation, dependent on others for simple everyday chores. They struggled to regain independence while staying positive, convinced that they would recover. Fear of another fall, as well as lack of information, made recovery at home difficult. CONCLUSION: Older people who experience hip fractures need support during the recovery process. Because recovery begins at the hospital, this study highlight patients' need to participate in recovery planning, as well as the need to have information about what it means to be affected by a hip fracture and how to prevent it from happening again. This study emphasizes that nurses' awareness of patients' need to participate in planning the recovery process is crucial for enabling patients' return to a daily life that is similar to their prefracture life.

Discharge Transition Experienced by Korean Older Adults After Hip Fracture Surgery: A Qualitative Study

“…A qualitative systematic review (26) also found that nurses played a signi cant role in coordinating between different health care settings, and post-discharge intervention was necessary for facilitating safe discharge transition. The current nding that some older adults struggled to recover functions such as exercising and eating was consistent with a previous study (19), which reported that older adults began to plan for their recovery immediately after hip fracture surgery because regaining independence was the most important issue in their daily life (19).…”

“…The third theme, dependent compliance includes absolute trust in healthcare providers, indispensable support from the family, and passive participation in care. The result regarding absolute trust in healthcare providers was similar to a previous study (19) in which older adults expressed their need to feel supported by healthcare providers. Older adults also depended entirely on family members, likely because of the family-centered culture (39) and limited social interaction (4), although some had home-visit care services during limited hours in their home.…”

“…The recovery of hip fracture surgery requires a long period of time. As older adults struggle to cope with their physical impairments (19), most enter other non-medical facilities or homes after discharge from the hospital where the surgery is performed (21).…”

“…Meanwhile, qualitative approaches are appropriate to fully understand the recovery process from the perspective of older adults, and as a fundamental data for nursing interventions to improve the recovery of older adults at the time of discharge (17,18). Some previous qualitative studies have described the recovery experiences of older adults after hip fracture surgery (4,8,(18)(19)(20).…”

Discharge transition experienced by older Korean women after hip fracture surgery: a qualitative study

“…Hip fractures require particularly long periods to recover, and dependence is inevitable during a discharge transition [ 12 ]. The major transitional difficulties that older adults face after hip fractures are physical function limitations, and pain and its management [ 13 ].…”