Help, I have to go to the restroom

Project summary

The background for the study is that there are humans that need help from home care nursing staff in order to go to the toilet, but the home care nurse can be far away when the elimination needs occurs. Women are especially vulnerable in such situations, because they, in a higher degree than men, need to sit down on the toilet and they cannot use a bottle in order to get rid of the urine.

There are no studies on how toileting is done in home care contexts, but media reports, studies from nursing homes and reports from hospitals in several Western countries show that patients are not helped to the toilet when they need it and can be laying/sitting in urine and faces for hours.

The goal with the study is that old, home living men and women that need help from home care nursing staff, get the opportunity to use the toilet when they need it.

Main questions: Since there are no earlier studies on toilet practices in home care nursing, the study will have a wide an exploring design:

How is the relation between old people's toilet practices when they are dependent on help from home care nurses in order to use the toilet, and

1. modern bodily norms (relatives in modern societies can find it difficult to support grown up people in toilet situations)?

2. the organization of the home care?

3. the design of the place of residence?

4. the old people’s physical function?

5. the old people’s and the nursing staff’s social background?

 

Research questions

·Why do the old people need help from home care nurses in order to use the toilet?

·How do the municipality decide what kind of help old people is to be offered?

• When do the old people need to go to the toilet, and when is she helped?

• Who helps old people in toilet situations and how is the work carried out?

• How do old people and eventually next of kin experience the toilet practices?

• How is the access to the toilet in the old people's  place of residence?

• What social, cultural and economic background do the old people and the nursing staff have?

 

 

Method

* Registrantanalyse

*  Interviews with 5 – 10 old people and 10 – 15 nursing staff.

* Observations on how the toilet practices are carried out, observations on old people’s ability to move and observations on the design of the old women’s place of residence.