Care as narrative practice in the context of long-term care: Theoretical considerations

In this article, we introduce care itself as a narrative practice. We emphasise that all interactions between care providers and older adults in long-term care settings are narrative in nature and foreground experience.

Every person consists of innumerable stories based on experiences over time. Some experiences can be recalled and told as narratives, while others are inscribed into our bodies; they are embodied. These narratives shape who we are and are becoming, and influence how care providers experience and provide nursing care in long-term care settings.

We highlight the importance of stories to narrative identities and focus on the embodied act of coconstructing new stories in interaction. We emphasise the idea that care in gerontological nursing would benefit from acknowledging and fostering embodied narratives in a systematic way with older adults.

To foster, elicit, and coconstruct evolving and forward-looking narratives based on older adults' verbal and embodied narratives is essential for the quality of care in long-term settings. Care providers must be aware that they are co-authors of older adults' continuous storying and restorying of their lives.

To recognise that both residents and care providers are narrative beings shift the current culture of care away from rationalised and emotionally devoid consequences of care. Understanding the theoretical underpinnings of care itself as narrative practice is a first step in developing care practices that place relationships between residents and care providers at the centre of practice. There is a need for the implementation of strategies to think and work narratively in long-term care settings.