Nursing Care to Support Regional Cultural Behaviors of Hospitalized Older Adults:

Efforts at a Hospital in an Island Community

Abstract

Objectives
The purpose of this study is to describe a nurse’s experiences in efforts to support regional cultural behaviors of hospitalized older adults through nursing activities.
Methods
The author conducted nursing activities to support regional cultural behaviors in four selected older adults. Based on the nursing records of the four patients, the process of nurse-patient relationship development was described in three phases, namely, patient selection, assessment, and plan implementation. Descriptive data were analyzed qualitatively and inductively by asking the question, “What experiences do nursing activities that support patients’ regional cultural behaviors bring to nurses?”
Results
The experiences of nursing activities to support regional cultural behaviors of hospitalized older adults were summarized into three categories from 11 subcategories. The nurses’ attention to the needs of the hospitalized older adults with respect to regional cultural activities and the nurses’ attempts to fulfill those needs led to “activating and deepening the care relationship.” In addition, “embodying the older adults’ social participation” resulted in “generating joy and motivation for living,” while further “activating and deepening the care relationship.”
Discussion
Nursing care that supports the regional cultural behaviors may help older adults, who lack the energy to overcome their own situation due to hospitalization, to form a relationship with nurses and may empower these patients to face their treatment. For the nurses, the repeated experience of deepening the relationship with the older adults and creating joy for them may contribute to the development of the nurses’ view of nursing.