title: Is the experience of meaningful activities understood in nursing homes? A qualitative study.
abstract: Lack of occupation can lead to boredom, apathy, social exclusion and solitude. Occupation should incorporate meaningful activities. The aim of this study is to describe how Spanish Nursing Home residents experienced and made sense of meaningful activities. A qualitative phenomenological approach was followed. Data were collected over an 18-month period between 2012 and 2014. Purposeful sampling was conducted with Spanish residents in nursing homes in Madrid. Data were collected using unstructured and semi-structured interviews. The data were analyzed using the Giorgi proposal. Thirty-eight residents (20 female and 18 male) participated. Three main themes describing the significance of meaningful activity in nursing homes emerged from the data: Feeling the passage of time, Seeking an occupation, and Living with restrictions. Nursing homes should strive to develop diverse and meaningful activity programs for residents in order to occupy their time and provide them with a greater sense of purpose.
authors.affiliation: Departament of Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Rehabilitation and Physical Medicine, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Avenida Atenas s/n, Alcorcon, 28922 Madrid, Spain. Electronic address: domingo.palacios@urjc.es.
authors.forename: Domingo
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Palacios-Ceña
authors.affiliation: Departament of Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Rehabilitation and Physical Medicine, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Avenida Atenas s/n, Alcorcon, 28922 Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gómez-Calero
authors.affiliation: Departament of Nursing, Universidad Europea de Madrid, Calle Tajo s/n, Villaviciosa de Odon, 28670 Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: José Miguel
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Cachón-Pérez
authors.affiliation: Departament of Nursing, Red Cross Collegue, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Calle Reina Victoria 28, 28003 Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Juan Francisco
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Velarde-García
authors.affiliation: Departament of Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Rehabilitation and Physical Medicine, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Avenida Atenas s/n, Alcorcon, 28922 Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Rosa
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Martínez-Piedrola
authors.affiliation: Departament of Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Rehabilitation and Physical Medicine, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Avenida Atenas s/n, Alcorcon, 28922 Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Marta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pérez-De-Heredia
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009735:Nursing Homes; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D036301:Qualitative Research; D011788:Quality of Life
keywords: Aged; Human activities; Long-term care; Nurses; Nursing homes; Qualitative research