The elder hospitalized: limiting factors of comfort

Background: Hospitalization causes significant changes in the lives of the eldery, due to factors such as the environment, changes in routines, loss of functional capacity, among others. Therefore, it is crucial to identify the contextual factors that emerge as discomforting. Objectives: To identify the limiting factors for comfort on hospitalized elderly. Methods: It is a descriptive study using qualitative methods of data gathering, guided by the ethnographic method. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 elderly patients, audio-recorded and submitted for content analysis [1]. The patients were selected from admissions to the medical services of a Central Hospital, in Lisbon. There was participant observation in order to understand the situational experiences, based on previously structured scripts [2]. Results: Regarding the action context, the factors that emerged, that cause discomfort included environmental conditions (light, noise, equipment, colour, temperature, natural or artificial elements of the environment); quality of food; the absence of activities as well as the lack of human resources and time to care. Conclusions: Comfort nursing care is challenged by the unpredictability of circumstances surrounding the satisfaction of multiple health needs and resources for caring. The action context, related to all its elements, can be limitative of the humanization and completeness in geriatric comfort care, which has a negative impact on the comforting experience of the elderly in hospital.