Centre for Caring Research-Southern Norway, Faculty of Health and Sport Sciences, University of Agder, Grimstad, Norway.
Int J Qual Stud Health Well-being. 2013 Apr 19;8:1-9. doi: 10.3402/qhw.v8i0.20592.
Self-care is an activity of mature persons who have developed their abilities to take care of themselves. Individuals can choose to actualize their self-care abilities into self-care activities to maintain, restore, or improve health and well-being. It is of importance to understand the meaning of the actualization of self-care resources among older people. The aim of this study was to investigate the meaning of the actualization of self-care resources, i.e., actions taken to improve, maintain, or restore health and well-being, among a group of older home-dwelling individuals with a high sense of coherence. The design of this study was to reanalyse narratives revealing self-care activities from 11 (five females and six males) Norwegian older home-dwelling people (65 years or older) identified as having a high sense of coherence. In order to reveal the meaning and get an understanding of why these self-care resources were realized or actualized, a Gadamerian-based research method was chosen. The analysis revealed four themes that showed the meaning of actualization of self-care resources in the study group: "Desire to carry on", "Be of use to others", "Self-realization", and "Confidence to manage in the future". The findings showed what older people found meaningful to strive for, and this information can be used as a guide for health professionals when supporting older people in their self-care. Older people with self-care resources can also be an important resource for others in need of social contact and practical help. These resources have to be asked for in voluntary work among older people in need of help and, thereby, can be a valuable supplement to the community health care system.
自我护理是具有自我护理能力的成年人的一种活动。个人可以选择将自我护理能力付诸实践，以维持、恢复或改善健康和福祉。了解老年人实现自我护理资源的意义很重要。本研究的目的是调查一群具有较高一致性感的老年居家个体实现自我护理资源的意义，即采取行动改善、维持或恢复健康和福祉。本研究的设计是重新分析揭示自我护理活动的叙述，这些活动来自 11 名（5 名女性和 6 名男性）挪威老年居家人士（65 岁或以上），他们被认为具有较高的一致性感。为了揭示意义并理解为什么实现或实现这些自我护理资源，选择了基于伽达默尔的研究方法。分析揭示了四个主题，显示了研究组中自我护理资源实现的意义：“继续下去的愿望”、“对他人有用”、“自我实现”和“对未来管理的信心”。研究结果表明，老年人为实现什么而奋斗是有意义的，这些信息可以作为卫生专业人员在支持老年人自我护理时的指导。具有自我护理资源的老年人也可以成为其他需要社会联系和实际帮助的人的重要资源。这些资源必须在有需要的老年人的志愿工作中提出，从而可以成为社区卫生保健系统的有价值的补充。
