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Life experiences of elderly people with suicide ideation at the long‐term care hospitals in South Korea
Author(s) -
Kim Ok Sun,
Sok Sohyune R.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
international journal of nursing practice
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.62
H-Index - 55
eISSN - 1440-172X
pISSN - 1322-7114
DOI - 10.1111/ijn.12597
Subject(s) - sadness , consolation , quality of life (healthcare) , suicidal ideation , qualitative research , gerontology , medicine , psychology , nursing , suicide prevention , poison control , psychiatry , medical emergency , sociology , anger , art , social science , literature
Objective To understand the life experiences of elderly people who are living in long‐term care hospitals and are afflicted with suicide ideation. Methods A phenomenological qualitative methodology based on Colaizzi's method was used for the study. Participants included 9 elderly people who are 65 years old or older with suicidal ideas and were admitted in any of the 3 long‐term care hospitals in D City, Gyeonggi‐do, South Korea. Data were collected from July to December 2014. Results Seven categories, 15 theme categories, 30 themes, and 88 significant items were identified as parts of their life experiences. The 7 categories were identified as “being a slave to one's disease”, “sadness as a result of being far away from one's family”, “vain care and consolation for me”, “continued life in a hospital, which feels like living abroad”, “plunging life”, “moving toward the end of life”, and “sad relief from death”. Conclusion The findings from this study provide a deep understanding of the lives of elderly people who were staying in long‐term care hospitals, and these will help improve their quality of life. Additionally, they can be used as references in implementing high‐quality nursing practices for such elderly people.