Quality of nursing home care assessed by competent nursing home patients

Interviews were conducted with 60 chronically ill but cognitively competent nursing home patients with a mean age of 80 years, living in 13 nursing homes in the county of Stockholm, Sweden. Quality of nursing home care was assessed through discrepancy between individual priorities (i.e. degree of perceived personal autonomy) and institutional possibility. The results show that there was a high degree of satisfaction with quality of care with regard to meal and shower routines, as well as with the possibilities to watch television, listen to the radio and feel secure. Social relations, on the other hand, was a subject which exposed large discrepancies. Most respondents believed in the importance of social relations whereas results point to a lack of intimacy in the daily living.