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Chapter 5 Findings
This sub-theme related to person-to-person interaction. It revealed that it is about
communication between staff and residents, between residents and residents,
between staff and staff, and between staff and families. It was suggested that all
levels of communication could be enhanced. Overall it suggested that good
communication can build relationships, and that knowing the resident is about
really knowing them as a person and about who they are and about understanding
the ageing process. It is about having an awareness of the resident’s life prior to
entering residential care, gathering information about their likes and dislikes and
together planning their care through effective person-to-person interaction, which
respects the resident, maintains their dignity and includes family members.
Summary of Theme 1
Theme 1 was labelled “The Personal”. The term personal can mean many
different things and can be defined as pertaining to the person or personality and
the personal person-to-person interaction and communication - hence the sub-
themes. The initial coding of the interview and observation data generated
chunks of text that could be categorised to each sub-theme. From the data it
emerged that autonomy for older people in residential care is affected by people
– both the residents themselves and the staff who care for them. It was also found
that individual personalities can shape one’s experience of autonomy. Person-to-
person interaction needs to be respectful, dignified and capable of multiple
approaches to communication in order to facilitate resident autonomy.
Theme 2: Being Personal
This theme further describes autonomy. It has two sub-themes: Being Impersonal
and Being Personalised. These will now be described individually and quotes
from the interview and observation transcripts will be included to aid the
description.
Theme 2a: Being Impersonal: “If they don’t fit into our pattern”
This sub-theme reveals that impersonal factors that can impact upon a resident’s
autonomy include the daily ward routine not being negotiated with residents and
lack of staff flexibility. Both the interviews and the observations revealed that a