Living with and Caring for Patients with Alzheimer's Disease in Nursing Homes

Many of the patients with Alzheimer disease are taken care of in nursing homes. However the literature on the experiences of Iranian formal caregivers of older adults with Alzheimer disease is scarce. This qualitative study explored the caring experiences of formal caregivers in nursing homes that can improve the quality of care and patient’s quality of life. This qualitative study used the principles of descriptive content analysis to analyze these data. Our participants included 11 female and 3 male caregivers aged 25 to 38 years who were selected for interviewing based on a purposive sampling method. The data were analyzed with a content analysis method. Nearly 900 initial codes were extracted and categorized into 6 main themes including «managing difficult behaviors», «dependence on familial care», «continuum of different feelings», «care for a child», «living with the patients» and «not understanding the patients», which was further analyzed in the two subcategories «caring without enough information» and «a dead man moving». The care provided by our informants was mainly influenced by attitudes, culture and religious beliefs of caregivers about family attachment and ample driven reward of helping and caring frail or old people in Islam. These cultural and religious beliefs could facilitate provision of care and confrontation with patients’ child-like behaviors. It is suggested that employment of trained staff and plans for their continued education can improve the quality of care and the quality of the patient''s life