Understanding functional ability: Perspectives of nurses and older people living in long-term care

The functional ability of older people has come to play a significant role in their care. Policies and public debate promote active aging and the need to maintain functioning in old age, including among older people living in long-term care. This study explores the meanings given to functional ability in the interview talk of long-term care nurses (n=24) and older people living in long-term care (n=16). The study is based on discourse analysis and positioning theory. In this study, accounts of functioning differed between nurses and older residents. For the nurses, functional ability was about the basic functions of everyday life, and they often used formal and theoretical language, whereas…