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Voicing Ageism in Nursing Home Dementia Care
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Voicing Ageism in Nursing Home Dementia Care

Kristine Williams, Clarissa Shaw, Alexandria Lee, Sohyun Kim, Emma Dinneen, Margaret Turk, Ying-Ling Jao and Wen Liu
Journal of gerontological nursing, Vol.43(9), pp.16-20
09/01/2017
DOI: 10.3928/00989134-20170523-02
PMCID: PMC5572481
PMID: 28556867
url
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/5572481View
Open Access

Abstract

Elderspeak (infantilizing communication) is a common form of ageism that has been linked to resistiveness to care in nursing home residents with dementia. Nursing home staff use elderspeak by modifying speech with older residents based on negative stereotypes, which results in patronizing communication that provides a message of incompetence. The purpose of this secondary analysis is to describe communication practices used by nursing home staff that reflect ageism. Transcripts of 80 video recordings of staff-resident communication collected during nursing home care activities were reanalyzed to identify specific elderspeak patterns, including diminutives, collective pronouns, tag questions, and reflectives. Nursing home staff used elderspeak in 84% of the transcripts during bathing, dressing, oral care, and other activities. Collective pronoun substitution occurred most frequently in 69% of the recorded conversations. Subgroup analysis of the inappropriate terms of endearment found that honey/hon and sweetheart/sweetie were most commonly used.
 Dementia Ageism Communication Elderspeak Nursing Home

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