"They Stay With You": Nursing Home Staff's Emotional Experiences of Being in a Close Relationship With a Resident in Long-Term Care who Died.

Academic Journal

Ådland AK; 56627University of Stavanger.
Gripsrud BH; 56627University of Stavanger.
Lavik MH; The Research Group for Nursing- and Healthcare Science, 60496Stavanger University Hospital.; 87446VID Specialized University.; Stellenbosch University.; 56627University of Stavanger.
Ramvi E; 56627University of Stavanger.

Journal of holistic nursing : official journal of the American Holistic Nurses' Association [J Holist Nurs] 2022 Jun; Vol. 40 (2), pp. 108-122. Date of Electronic Publication: 2021 May 28.

English

Aim: To explore and develop understanding of nursing home staff's emotional experiences of being in a close relationship with a resident in long-term care who later died. Design: Ethnographic fieldwork. Methods: As part of fieldwork, narrative interviews were conducted with nursing home staff ( n  = 6) in two nursing homes in Norway and analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Findings: Through data analysis, we identified three superordinate themes: (1) wanting to be something good for the resident and their families, (2) striving to make sense of the resident's death, and (3) struggling to balance being personal and professional. Implications for holistic nursing and conclusion: Nursing home staff experience tensions between ideals of distanced professionalism and the emotional experience of proximity, evidenced by personal commitment and mutual recognition in relationships with "special residents" in long-term care. To support holistic practice, awareness is needed of the emotional impact of relationships on health professionals. Suppressing feelings puts staff at risk of moral distress, compassion fatigue, and burnout, as well as higher turnover and absenteeism. Managers should facilitate discussions on professionals' ideals of relationship-based practice, including processing of, and reflection on, emotional experiences in long-term care. Rituals to mark a resident's death can provide further emotional containment.