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Chapter 7 Discussion
Research could also be undertaken to further develop the data collection tools by
testing them in other residential care units in other countries.
While this research gathered staff, residents and resident families perspectives
further research could be undertaken with registered providers of residential care
in order to gather their understanding of the issues of importance for older people
in their residential care facilities and in order to gather their understanding of the
importance of resident autonomy.
This research study found that both staff and residents felt there was little or no
time for meaningful engagement in order to get to know and understand the
residents wishes. Gubrium (1997) argued that staffs statements about being
rushed is not linked to the absolute time they have to do their work but rather to
the amount of time they wish to allocate to sharing the company of other staff
members. Further research could analyse time management and workload in
residential care and could individually examine the promoting and prohibiting
factors for resident autonomy as identified in this research.
This research found a link between the residents level of independence and the
amount of autonomy they experienced, this suggests that further research is
needed in order to explore ways in which staff and families involved in
residential care can better facilitate residents to delegate their needs when their
independence is impaired.
7.6.2 Concluding comment
This thesis presented the findings of a two phase study carried out to address the
research objectives. The primary aim of this research was to explore autonomy
for older people in residential care. This was the first exploration of this
phenomena in Ireland. The secondary aim was to enhance one aspect of resident
autonomy in the real world of practice. Some important conclusions were made
regarding these issues, and the insights obtained provide a clearer picture
regarding resident autonomy, which may usefully inform nursing practice,
education and research.