Carpiac-Claver Maria L, Levy-Storms Lené
Department of Social Welfare, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
Health Commun. 2007;22(1):59-67. doi: 10.1080/10410230701310307.
Older adults in long-term care facilities have few opportunities for emotionally meaningful social interactions with noninstitutional social ties; yet having such relationships is a basic human need that affects well-being. Among institutional social ties, affective communication can enhance relationships between residents and nurse aides, who provide most of their care. This naturalistic study identifies types and examples of nurse aide-initiated communication with long-term care residents during mealtime assistance in the context of residents' responses. Verbal and nonverbal communication from videos of nurse aides and residents in two skilled nursing facilities (n = 17) and an assisted living facility (n = 6) were transcribed. The transcripts were coded and the data were organized into categories using grounded theory methods. Although substantial content emphasized instrumental communication (i.e., prompts to eat and/or drink), 4 types of affective communication initiated by nurse aides emerged: "personal conversation," "addressing the resident," "checking in," and "emotional support/praise." These results suggest that affective verbal communication needs further development in terms of scope and depth to optimize residents' well-being. The specific examples of nurse aides' affective verbal communication with residents from these findings can be incorporated and expanded on in nurse aide training programs to improve the way nurse aides relate to residents during care provision.
长期护理机构中的老年人很少有机会与机构外的社会关系进行情感上有意义的社交互动；然而，拥有这样的关系是影响幸福感的一项基本人类需求。在机构内的社会关系中，情感交流可以增进居民与护士助理之间的关系，护士助理提供了他们大部分的护理服务。这项自然主义研究确定了在居民回应的背景下，护士助理在进餐协助期间与长期护理居民发起交流的类型和示例。对两个专业护理机构（n = 17）和一个辅助生活设施（n = 6）中护士助理和居民视频中的言语和非言语交流进行了转录。使用扎根理论方法对转录本进行编码，并将数据组织成类别。尽管大量内容强调工具性交流（即进食和/或饮水提示），但护士助理发起的4种情感交流类型出现了：“个人对话”、“称呼居民”、“询问情况”和“情感支持/赞扬”。这些结果表明，情感言语交流在范围和深度方面需要进一步发展，以优化居民的幸福感。这些发现中护士助理与居民情感言语交流的具体示例可以纳入并扩展到护士助理培训项目中，以改善护士助理在提供护理期间与居民互动的方式。
