Aim: To explore how nurses working in the home care service sector perceived the loneliness experienced by older people living at home, and how they met these lonely individuals' needs.
Background: Loneliness is a well-known phenomenon among groups of older home-dwelling people and has been shown to be a health-related problem. Health care professionals working in the primary care sector, such as home care nurses, may be in the position to identify loneliness among at-home seniors. Identifying and addressing loneliness must become important issues in home care nursing.
Design: A qualitative study.
Methods: Focus group interviews were performed with 11 home care nurses in Norway. The interviews were analyzed in accordance with manifest and latent content analysis. The Coreq checklist was followed.
Findings: Home care nurses identified loneliness among older people as being a complex and sensitive phenomenon that activated conflicted thoughts, feelings and solutions in a system where older people's loneliness was generally not considered as a need requiring nursing care.
Conclusion: Loneliness among older people challenged the nurses with regard to communicating older people's feelings of loneliness and meeting their social needs. Organizational structures were perceived as being the main barriers to meeting these needs. Older people's feelings of loneliness stimulated nurses' reflections about the purpose of their nursing role. It is important to address loneliness among older home-dwelling people and include the issue in home care nursing in order to meet their need for social contact. Home nursing leaders must pay attention to the nurses' experiences, promote the nurses' acquisition of knowledge about this kind of loneliness and learn how to meet an older individual's needs. There should be a special focus on communicating with lonely older people in order to address their feelings loneliness.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/JMDH.S298548 | DOI Listing |
J Appl Gerontol
January 2025
University of Windsor, Windsor, ON, Canada.
The current study attempts to estimate the prevalence rate of, and factors associated with, elder abuse in Ontario, Canada. The data for this study was collected using a cross-sectional study design, which involved a Qualtrics survey. Various recruitment strategies were used to reach respondents, including Facebook advertisements, email listservs, and a Qualtrics research panel.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnn N Y Acad Sci
January 2025
Faw Htoo Kaw Research Consultancy, Yangon, Myanmar.
Loneliness has detrimental physical and mental health outcomes. To date, there are few studies on loneliness interventions in lower-resource settings. Based on participatory action research methods that are theoretically informed by the social relationship expectations framework, we developed a loneliness intervention called amanane using the photovoice method with older Myanmar migrants in northern Thailand.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: There is substantial interest among policy makers in using telecare to support independence in older adults. However, research on how telecare can be most beneficial in promoting independence is limited. This realist review aimed to understand the contexts in which telecare can support independence and for whom, to aid older people in remaining at home.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Gen Intern Med
January 2025
Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, 525 E 68th St., New York, NY, 10065, USA.
Background: Post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC) are ongoing, relapsing, or new symptoms present at least 3 months after infection. Predictors of PASC, particularly across diverse racial and ethnic groups, remain unclear.
Objectives: Assess the prevalence of PASC 1 year after infection, examining differences in PASC prevalence by the social construct of race.
Background: The number of individuals living alone with dementia is increasing throughout the world, and they have unique needs that are poorly understood. The aim of this integrative review was to understand the characteristics, needs, and perspectives of individuals living alone with dementia as well as the available community resources to guide future research and clinical practice.
Methods: Electronic (PubMed, CINAHL, and PsycINFO) and manual searches were utilized to identify articles using MeSH terms.
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