Story sharing: restoring the reciprocity of caring in long-term care.
Residents in long-term care facilities often experience an interruption in the reciprocity of caring, inadvertently cut off when they enter the unfamiliar surroundings of a residential health care system. This transition from the give and take of caring to being completely cared for often leads to a breakdown of meaning, a loss of identity, and loneliness. This article addresses how an intervention called story sharing can restore the reciprocity of caring. Beginning with a review of the significance and functions of storytelling and listening, a specific story sharing intervention-the mutual sharing of everyday experiences among nurse aides and the nursing home residents for whom they care-is described. The theoretical and practice implications of story sharing are discussed.
University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, USA. dheliker@utmb.edu
Diane
D
Heliker
D000368:Aged / Q000523:psychology*; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003142:Communication; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D003479:Curriculum; D004509:Education, Nursing, Continuing; D004645:Empathy; D005851:Geriatric Nursing / Q000193:education / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D007318:Inservice Training; D008132:Loneliness; D008134:Long-Term Care / Q000379:methods / Q000523:psychology; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D033262:Narration; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D009728:Nursing Assistants / Q000193:education / Q000523:psychology; D015402:Nursing Education Research; D015403:Nursing Evaluation Research; D009735:Nursing Homes; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology; D012649:Self Concept; D012650:Self Disclosure