Abstract
ABSTRACTPurpose: Existential loneliness is part of being human that is little understood in health care, but, to provide good care to their older patients, professionals need to be able to meet their existential concerns. The aim of this study was to explore health care professionals’ experiences of their encounters with older people they perceive to experience existential loneliness. Method: We conducted 11 focus groups with 61 health professionals working in home care, nursing home care, palliative care, primary care, hospital care, or pre-hospital care. Our deductive–inductive analytical approach used a theoretical framework based on the work of Emmy van Deurzen in the deductive phase and an interpretative approach in the inductive phase. Results: The results show that professionals perceived existential loneliness to appear in various forms associated with barriers in their encounters, such as the older people’s bodily limitations, demands and needs perceived as insatiable, personal shield of privacy, or fear and difficulty in encountering existential issues. Conclusion: Encountering existential loneliness affected the professionals and their feelings in various ways, but they generally found the experience both challenging and meaningful.
Highlights
To avoid unnecessary suffering in older people, health care professionals in all professions and care contexts need to meet these people’s existential concerns
Analytical questions were addressed to the text:What competencies and abilities are professionals using in encountering and interpreting older people’s existential loneliness? What are the professionals’ perceptions and interpretation of older persons’ existential loneliness? How do professionals describe that existential loneliness is expressed? What are professionals own experiences of encountering older persons’ existential loneliness? In the fourth step, we looked for significant patterns in the answers to the analytical questions and categories to describe the challenges professionals faced in the encounters with older people’s existential loneliness
The professionals’ perceptions and interpretations of older patients’ existential loneliness and their own experiences of encountering existential loneliness are presented as barriers in the encounters: (1) Insecurity when trying to interpret and understand needs and desires; (2) Reluctance to meet demands and needs perceived as insatiable; (3) Insecurity about how to break through the personal shield; and (4) Fear and difficulty in encountering existential issues (Figure 2)
Summary
To avoid unnecessary suffering in older people, health care professionals in all professions and care contexts need to meet these people’s existential concerns. Previous research shows that nursing staff are willing to pay attention to existential issues (Strang, Strang, & Ternestedt, 2002), more recent research shows that it is difficult and challenging to find time and space for this in everyday elderly care (Beck, 2013; Norell Pejner, 2013; Sundler, Eide, Van Dulmen, & Holmström, 2016) This can lead nursing staff to feel compelled to focus more on practical tasks than on relations with the older people and their relatives (Beck, 2013). This study has its starting point in existential aspects of loneliness, existential loneliness in a caring context, and how professionals experienced existential loneliness in the encounter with older people
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