Should loved one be moved to a nursing home - Research Paper Example

This paper intends to answer my curiosity by discussing the issues that compel people to move their loved ones to nursing homes while focusing on certain questions related to the topic which include: Do the loved ones enjoy being in nursing homes? What effect does this have on the relationship? Does this improve the concept of life in the eyes of the elderly? I have always wanted to know if we manage to improve the life quality of our loved ones once we move them to nursing homes. Thomas (1996), a physician in family medicine and geriatrics, talks about his experience in the nursing home and states that his experience was “like a dose of castor oil” and “extremely unpleasant” (p.xii). He writes that he saw his patients getting weaker, sicker, and frustrated as time passed by, and the only excitement in their lives was when some companion died and another replaced him.

No matter how much advancement the setting of nursing homes has seen in modern times, still the thought of being admitted to nursing homes for good is haunting for the elderly for fear of “loss of privacy” and “segregation from the outside world” (Johnson & Grant, as cited in Baker, 2007, p.32). This is naturally unimaginable how we can make our loved ones move to a place which, as research suggests, is likely to hinder with their improvement in lifestyle. Now let’s discuss what effect does doing so has on the adult children’s care giving experiences and the relationship between the two parties.

Harris (1998) conducted in-depth interviews with 30 sons of elderly parents who had been moved to nursing homes due to dementia. His research focused on sons’ care giving experiences and has concluded that they became more dutiful and responsible toward their parents, going an extra mile for them and arranging professional healthcare setting to ensure their health improvement. They learnt how to devise coping strategies and build relationships with siblings. Smith and Bengtson (1979) also conducted a research on institutionalized elderly parents and found that the parents and their children reported that their relationships and ties got stronger with the elderly moved to the nursing homes.

“The data suggest that institutional care can serve to enhance family relations, particularly when family ties have been strained by the needs of the older member” (Smith & Bengtson, 1979, p.438). Another important issue is regarding how the perception of the elderly toward life modifies in nursing homes. Hjaltadottir and Gustafsdottir (2007) conducted a research with the eight frail but lucid elderly residing in two nursing homes in Iceland and examined how they perceived the phenomenon of life in that setting.

They found that the participants looked at life as a concern for securing their bodies, searching for comfort, preparing for leaving the world, and affirming their inner selves. The participants reported they enjoyed delightful time alone with their own thought and their self-built imaginary world. Their life had turned meaningful to them. “These aspects of life in a nursing home contribute to living in a meaningful world in which humanity is preserved”, concluded the researchers (p.48). I found from this project that although it is hard for the loved ones and also for the family to