Nursing care for elderly people: experiences and impacts

Abstract

Nursing is one of the careers that care for the older persons in different settings. Yet, their clinical experience is still larger than their training. This exploratory study investigates nurses' professional experiences when caring for elderly people, analysing also how that impacts upon the nurses. The critical incidents technique is adopted; the sample comprises 47 nurses. Main findings suggest that: i) nurses experience cases of elderly people being victims of abuse, being alone and/or facing death proximity, which impacts them with indignation and impotence; ii) elderly people's disease and dependency impact upon nurses by making them reflect about their professional practice and increasing their compassion. Nurses still need more training to better deal with the specificity and complexity of elderly care.