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Activities with family members that are valued by residents of a long term care facility Cumming, Robin Irma

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to describe the activities with family members that are valued by residents of a Long Term Care Facility (LTC Facility) and to identify relationships between the demographic characteristics of the residents and their families and the activities that residents value. Data were collected from fifty residents of a LTC Facility using the modified Questionnaire for Resident/Patient (Dobrof, 1976). The results of the study suggest that residents value a number of activities with members of their modified extended families. Activities that are most valued are visits, phone calls and personal assistance with transportation to outside appointments and clinics; and shopping with or for residents. Those subjects with a surviving child were found to have a significant number of visits, phone calls, and exchanges of cards with daughters as well as visits to their homes. It was also found that a significant number of subjects named daughters as their key relative. Those subjects without a surviving child named significant others, siblings, nieces and nephews as their key relatives. It was found that as the subjects' Level of Care increased so did the assistance with personal care activities that they received from significant others. Additional findings suggest that many subjects do not want to exchange gifts with family members; that contacts between subjects and their relatives have stayed the same or increased since placement; and that less than half of the residents have been asked by their family members about the types of activities they would like family members to have with them. The study results give direction for nurses to facilitate and encourage discussion between the elderly and their families about the activities they value together; to use this information in counselling family members and significant others in the ways that they may be supportive to their elderly relatives' as their conditions change; in planning activities and care for residents of LTC Facilities; and to be alert to ways to provide support and assistance to daughters.

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