Use of Culture Care Theory with Anglo- and African American Elders in a Long-Term Care Setting

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to discover the care expressions, practices, and patterns of elderly Anglo- and African American elders. The domain of inquiry was the cultural care of elderly residents within the environmental context of a long-term care institution. The ethnonursing qualitative research method was used to conduct the study which was conceptualized within Leininger's theory of culture care diversity and universality. Four major themes were discovered: (a) Residents expressed and lived generic care to maintain their preadmission lifeways; (b) The nursing staff provided aspects of professional care to support satisfying lifeways for residents; (c) Institutional care patterns and expressions were viewed as a continuing life experience but with major differences between the apartment section and nursing home units; and (d) An institutional culture of the retirement home was discovered which reflected unique lifeways and shared care and health expressions and practices. These themes substantiated the culture care theory and revealed new modes of care for the elderly in an institutional setting.

A Comparative Evaluation of the Perceptions of Health of Elders of Different Multicultural Backgrounds

“…McFarland (1997) substantiate d this in her study on Anglo-and African American elders in a long-term care facility: "The generic care pattern of families helping their elderly relatives enhanced the health and lifeways of the residents" (p. 189). Native Americans specifically noted they have to seek the traditiona l healer first.…”

Elderly Care for Ethnic Minorities--Wishes and Expectations among Elderly Finns in Sweden

“…Johnson (1996) noticed that the admission to elderly care facilities poses many discontinuities in relation to customary lifestyles, including changes in physical locations, daily life patterns, social networks and support. These changes require that elderly people adjust to new locations (Lee et al 2002), and to the new culture existing in these facilities (McFarland 1997). Wolinsky et al (1989) noticed in their analysis that the prevailing health care model for elderly care usage reveals a pattern that favours the Anglo-American population, and suggested new programmes that eliminate inequalities to the access of elderly care.…”

“…The literature also shows that minority and immigrant groups in elderly care facilities tend to have less communication with the staff than elderly people from the majority population (Jones and van Amelsvoort Jones 1986), and that the residents from the majority population share the lifestyle and care practices of the institutional culture to a greater extent than the residents from a minority group (McFarland 1997).…”

“…Formal and informal support services, education of staff and alternative care have been suggested (Johnsson-Crockett and Barber 1990;Payne-Johnson 1992;Ebrahim 1996;Delgado and Tennstedt 1997), including linguistically competent care (Siddharthan and Sowers-Hoag 1989;Johnsson-Crockett and Barber 1990;Cohn et al 2000). Downloaded by [UNAM Ciudad Universitaria] at 07:05 23 December 2014 McFarland (1997) and Lee et al (2002) noticed in their literature reviews that there is a lack of studies concerning minority and immigrant elderly people's perceptions and experiences of care in institutional settings. In our literature review we found no studies that have concentrated on elderly people from minority or immigrant groups' priorities connected with elderly care facilities.…”

Identification of nursing assessment models/tools validated in clinical practice for use with diverse ethno-cultural groups: an integrative review of the literature

“…The FAMCHAT [23], developed in 1997 within a primary care context, is an inclusive ethno-cultural map as it gathers data on variables such as, ethnicity, religion, health care customs, socioeconomic variables, age, gender, and family size. McFarland [26] discusses how a conceptual tool/model could be used to generate cultural information of a population. Under the ethno-cultural sensitive practices theme, the CCCC tool/model [30] offers health care providers a framework to measure their level of cultural competence and the ways by which they can improve their capacity.…”