Aim: This study explored and described residential care for the elderly in eThekwini
Municipality in terms of the organizational structure, staff and residents, and determined how
those factors influenced elder care. This was aimed to make recommendations for residential
care in eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality.
Methodology: A descriptive explorative case study design, using both quantitative and
qualitative approaches was adopted for this study. The study participants included eight
administrators, twenty elderly residents and thirty nursing staff from four residential care
facilities (RCFs) in eThekwini Municipality, Durban. Data were collected through interviews,
questionnaires, record review and observation based on the structure, process and outcome of the
study's conceptual framework. Qualitative data were gathered from administrators and elderly
residents. The data were transcribed and analyzed manually using Framework Analysis (Ritchi &
Spencer, 1994). Quantitative data was obtained from nursing staff using questionnaires, and
analyzed using SPSS.
Findings: Administrative fmdings followed the structure, process and outcome of the study. The
structural findings were focused on facility philosophy and human-material resources, as well as
on emerging themes from the data. The emerging themes from facility philosophy were assisting
vulnerable people across age groups, document review, quality indicators, admission criteria and
reasons for admission to each facility. Emerging themes from human-material resources were
fmancial sustainability, staff-resident ratio and material resources. The process findings were
focused on care and service delivery to the elderly and the emerging themes were one big family,
incidence of abuse, methods of elder care and service delivery, knowledge about elder care,
relationship of control, being there, gentle restraint, setting boundaries with the residents,
medication safety, common religious belief and resident satisfaction. Findings from the outcome
were focused on success and challenges of elder care, experiences of the elderly and nursing staff
care experiences. Thus, emerging themes from success and challenges were strong bond,
retaining staff, maintenance of physical structure, location of care centre; success and its
dependence and challenges of procuring basic medical equipment. Findings from experiences of
the elderly were reasons for admission, relationship, experiences of the elderly, response shift,
psychosocial support and satisfaction with care, cultural belief and well respected. Emerging
themes from nursing staffs experiences of caring for the elderly was mainly focused on their
professional knowledge about elder care. Details of these findings are written down in Chapters
Four and discussed in relation to literature in Chapter Five.
Conclusion: The study concluded by making recommendations for the care of the elderly in
-RCFs in eThekwini Municipality in line with the findings of the study. The recommendations
have implications for the government, policy makers, nursing education and nursing research.
Moreover, those concerned are encouraged to adopt and use the recommendations where
applicable to promote residential care quality for the elderly in eThekwini Metropolitan
Municipality. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2010.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ukzn/oai:http://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za:10413/9031 |
| Date | January 2010 |
| Creators | Dolo, Meiko Josephine. |
| Contributors | Brysiewicz, Petra., Adejumo, Oluyinka. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en_ZA |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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