Ådland AK, Gripsrud BH, Lavik MH, Ramvi E. "They Stay With You": Nursing Home Staff's Emotional Experiences of Being in a Close Relationship With a Resident in Long-Term Care who Died.
J Holist Nurs 2021;
40:108-122. [PMID:
34048319 PMCID:
PMC9121525 DOI:
10.1177/08980101211017766]
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Abstract
Aim: To explore and develop understanding of nursing home staff's emotional
experiences of being in a close relationship with a resident in long-term care who later
died. Design: Ethnographic fieldwork. Methods: As part of
fieldwork, narrative interviews were conducted with nursing home staff
(n = 6) in two nursing homes in Norway and analyzed using interpretative
phenomenological analysis. Findings: Through data analysis, we identified
three superordinate themes: (1) wanting to be something good for the resident and their
families, (2) striving to make sense of the resident's death, and (3) struggling to
balance being personal and professional. Implications for holistic nursing and
conclusion: Nursing home staff experience tensions between ideals of distanced
professionalism and the emotional experience of proximity, evidenced by personal
commitment and mutual recognition in relationships with “special residents” in long-term
care. To support holistic practice, awareness is needed of the emotional impact of
relationships on health professionals. Suppressing feelings puts staff at risk of moral
distress, compassion fatigue, and burnout, as well as higher turnover and absenteeism.
Managers should facilitate discussions on professionals’ ideals of relationship-based
practice, including processing of, and reflection on, emotional experiences in long-term
care. Rituals to mark a resident's death can provide further emotional containment.
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