Nursing staff's description of a good encounter in nursing homes

Background.  It has been stated that there is too little research on what constitutes good communication and good encounters in nursing homes. Aim and objectives.  The aim of the present study was to examine nursing staff members' views on what is important in caring encounters with older people living in nursing homes. Design.  A qualitative descriptive study using focus group interviews with staff in a nursing home in Sweden. Method.  Focus group interviews, analysed using qualitative content analysis. Results.  Three main themes emerged describing nursing staff members' opinions about the content of good encounters: 'Caring encounters from the perspective of equality', 'Caring encounters from the perspective of integrity' and 'Caring encounters from the perspective of promoting security'. Conclusions.  The nursing staff had theoretical knowledge of what constitutes a good caring encounter, but they seemed to need more supervision and training to develop their ways of encountering older people as well as to become stronger in their professional role. When performing such training with staff, the methodology of appreciative inquiry could be a powerful tool. Relevance to clinical practice.  It is important to help staff become empowered and to help them develop and improve their encounters with older care recipients.