(On) life in an institutional care: the nursing home for the elderly - residents perspective

Abstract

Paper analyzes the narratives of the nursing home residents with respect to their life in the institution. In order to investigate how the elderly, see their life in nursing home, we have dealt with topics that include their lived-through past, experienced present and anticipated future. In our in-depth interviews with eight residents of a private nursing home in the suburbs of the capital-they talk about the reasons for moving to nursing home, practices of adapting to a new milieu, and expectations both before and after arriving to the nursing facility. An additional topic- how to design life in the institution came along. The findings indicate that moving into such an institution is rarely an option that our interlocutors have chosen independently. Despite the fact that everyday life is routinized, the nursing home life is praised. In fact, the introspection and self-negotiation about the positive aspects of life at nursing home are key elements of the strategy for designing a uniform present and exactly the same future.