Anna successfully defended her dissertation
On 27 September, Anna Larsson Gerdin successfully defended her doctoral thesis "Expereriences of care encounters in Swedish home care setting: perspectives from older persons and home care nurses" at Campus Sundsvall.
The main supervisor was Malin Holmström Rising, professor of nursing at Mid Sweden University, and the opponent was Annica Kihlgren, professor at Örebro University.
The thesis focused on the care meeting
The Swedish health care system for the elderly has shifted towards an increased focus on home care, which brings several benefits, such as increased security, independence and quality of life for the elderly. Home care also reduces the need for costly alternatives such as hospitalizations, saving resources. At the same time, new challenges arise for nurses and healthcare organisations, as it is important that care at home is as effective as in traditional care facilities.
The care takes place in the care meeting itself, where the interaction between patient and care provider is crucial for both the quality of the care and the patient's experience of security and participation. However, when the meeting takes place at home, it takes place with limited transparency, which means that the interaction between older people and home care nurses, as well as the care measures that are performed, often remain invisible to the outside world and is sparsely explored in research.
The overall aim of this doctoral thesis was to explore, describe and gain a deeper understanding of the lived experiences of care encounters in home care, as experienced by older people and home care nurses, in order to create knowledge for the care practice.