A Study of Experience of the Elderly with Moderate to Severe Dementia

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to clarify the experiences of elderly with moderate to severe dementia. Voice recordings of conversations that the author had with 5 patients with Alzheimer's dementia aged 65 years over in hospital and above during their care were analyzed by a qualitative and inductive approach. The subjects expressed their experience by few words. Their experience could be classified into 4 categories : "awareness of a forgetfulness with wonderings", "having nothing to do and feeling lonely", "making efforts to compromise for living with other people", and "temporary confusion". Nurses should to support their experience of "awareness of a forgetfulness with wonderings", "making efforts to compromise for living with other people". Nurses should focus on those elderly with dementia who seems stable but feeling of loneliness".