The Emotional Experiences of Elderly People Regarding the Process of Residency in Nursing Homes

There isincreasing rate of tendency of leaving elderly people to live in nursing homes in recent years. It is suggested that, the common view of the elderly people towards living in nursing homes is known as "the final sign of failure in the life'. It seems that this attitude has a negative influence on adaptation of elders when confronting with a challenge. Therefor, the understanding of the emotional experiences of elderly people to spend their life in nursing homes is important. In this study, the objective was to explore the emotional experiences of elders who living in nursing homes. The research question is “How is structure and meaning of the emotional experiences of elderly people in the Process of Residency in nursing homes?” A qualitative phenomenological approach was used in this study with applied purposive sampling amongst elderly residents in private and public nursing homes in Isfahan. Sampling was continued till data saturation and the resulting sample size consisted 10 participants. The data was collected by in-depth interviews. Field notes was used for completing data collection process and Colaizzi's method was applied for data analysis. The rigor of present study was based on the transferability and credibility. Two themes were extracted from the data (structural components of experience), including: Residents’ emotional experiences during nursing home life and Resident’s emotional experiences at the entrance in the nursing home. In this study, older people have shown various emotions to relocation and residency in nursing homes. Elders, with different context and different history in their life, had unique experiences. In addition, it is essential to pay attention to social, financial, mental, spiritual and physical needs of elders as components of holistic care. In fact because concerning only physical needs of elderly people can not lead to promote hopeful, meaningful and purposful life for the elderly people.