Expressed emotions and experiences from relatives regarding having a family member living in a nursing home for older people

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to describe the topics relatives with a family member in a nursing home for older persons choose to talk about and focus on when participating in a nurse-led “Family Health Conversations” intervention. Family Health Conversations consisted of a series of three nurse-led conversations with each family, with a 2-week interval between meetings. METHODS: The Family Health Conversations meetings were tape-recorded and analyzed using qualitative content methods. The participants were relatives of family members living in a nursing home for older persons in a municipality in Sweden. RESULTS: The findings showed how the relatives talked about their suffering and difficulties concerning the new situation. The relatives talked about frustration and sadness together in a new way, with a focus on how to manage the future. They also wished that they had been offered an opportunity to talk about this with nurses earlier in the illness trajectory. CONCLUSION: The relatives had a significant need to talk about their experiences together within the family and together with the nurses. Nurses have an especially important task in supporting relatives having a family member living in a nursing home.