0000000000262558
AUTHOR
Jaakko Valvanne
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…
Standardised functional assessment in long-term care for older people: perspective of Finnish care workers
Objective measures and documentation are increasingly used in the care for older people to promote efficiency and productivity. A standardised assessment of functional capacity is one such measure. In this study, we examined the meanings given to standardised functional assessment by care workers who provide long-term care for older people. Gathered from eight Finnish long-term care facilities, the data consisted of one-on-one interviews with practical and registered nurses (n = 24). In the data analysis, we employed the discursive approach. We identified three discourses in the care workers’ talks that differed in the meaning given to standardised functional assessment in the process of ca…