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Need of intimacy of patients women 65+
NOVÁKOVÁ, Pavlína
The aim of this bachelor's thesis was to determine the status of the needs for intimacy and privacy of elderly women aged 65+ in a nursing home. Elderly women lose part of their privacy by entering such a facility. According to their degree of dependence on care, their intimate zone is violated during nursing care. I used the method of non-standardized interviews and direct covert participant observation to find out how the elderly women feel and cope in such situations. I collected data from 10 female clients and 4 members of the nursing staff of the Stachy-Kusov Nursing Home. The group of female clients was deliberately selected to represent seniors of different levels of self-care, mobility and care dependency. All nursing professions were represented among the staff. In the interviews, I explored how the clients felt in situations where they had to surrender some of their privacy and intimacy, how they coped with these feelings, and asked about their willingness and ability to communicate these topics. I investigated how nursing staff perceived these facts, their ability to empathize and communicate non-verbally with the elderly women in their care. From the data obtained, I drew conclusions regarding the saturation of the seniors' need for intimacy. It shows that individual approach with kindness and consideration is important to improve the feelings of care recipients. It is always necessary to act in the interest of preserving the dignity of the clients, to leave them the right to make decisions for themselves, not to reduce their capacity for self-care and to offer the possibility of relaxation through positive experiences or activities. In my research, the insufficient number of direct care workers to meet the individual needs of clients and the related lack of time that can be devoted to each client proved to be the limiting factor.
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