Nurses’ descriptions of person‐centred care for older people in an acute medical ward—On the individual, team and organisational levels’

Aim and objectives To describe nurses’ experiences of providing person‐centred care for older people on an acute medical ward. Background There is evidence that person‐centred care for older people contributes to a higher quality care and increased satisfaction with care. However, there is a shortness of studies providing concrete examples of what facilitates nurses providing person‐centred care for older people in acute care. Design An interview study with qualitative content analysis. COREQ guidelines have been applied. Method Fourteen registered nurses and enrolled nurses from an acute care ward participated in semi structured research interviews. The interviews were conducted during 2016 and interpreted using qualitative content analyses. Results Person‐centred care was described at different levels in care; at the individual nurse level, person‐centred care was described as involving person‐centred assessing, relating and spacing which involved personalising assessments, relationships as well as the physical environment. At the team level, person‐centred care was described in terms of person‐centred goal setting, team responsibilities and team support, and involved having shared and personalised goals, different team responsibilities and a climate of support and collaboration. At the organisational level, person‐centred care was described in terms of having person‐centred routines, workloads and staff roles that all contributed to put the person at the core of the organisation and build routines to support this. Conclusions The current study emphasises that, rather than confining person‐centred care to specific moments or relationships, a systematic, multilevel organisational approach seems needed to enable nurses as individuals and teams to provide person‐centred care consistently and continuously to older people in acute care settings. Relevance to clinical practice The results of this study should inspire nurses and managers to expedite implementation of person‐centred care for older care recipients hospitalised in acute care wards. Examples of person‐centred care are presented herein at clearly identified sites, namely, the “individual,” “team” and “organisational levels.”