치매노인을 돌보는 요양병원 간호사의 경험

Experiences of Long-term Care Hospital Nurses Caring for Elders with Dementia

Purpose: This study aims to understand more clearly the long-term care hospital nurses’ experiences of caring for elders with dementia and provide baseline data to improve the quality of nursing. Methods: Colaizzi s phenomenological method was used for data analysis. The participants were seven nurses. Face-to-face in depth interviews were used for data collection from June to October, 2018. Results: Three categories were identified. The nurses reported experiences caring for elders with dementia were ‘accepting dementia as a part of life’, ‘crumbling sense of identity due to the provocation of elders with dementia and their families’, and ‘pursuing caring beyond dementia caring’. Nine themes were shown in this study. The participants stated that they needed to understand dementia and accept dementia through relationships with elders with dementia. Conclusion: These results should be considered in planning nursing interventions for caring of elders with dementia in long-term care hospital. The findings support the need for educational strategies and programs to improve the ability of long-term care hospital nurses to adequately care for elders with dementia and for the necessity to develop related policy supports.