ABSTRACT
As the number of elderly citizens in general and the number of persons with dementia in particular rises, the importance of educating geriatric health care professionals increases. Recruitment is, however, impaired by negative stereotypes and insecurity. Previous research has shown that contact with the field of dementia care is important for students' motivation for choosing this career path. This paper presents an extracurricular psychomotor intervention program in which students through eight visits to elderly persons with dementia carry out an intervention involving direct individual contact. Eight psychomotor therapy students participated in follow-up focus group interviews. The purpose was to explore the motivational dynamics that make these experiences meaningful to students. Qualitative analysis of the students' self-assessed outcomes revealed three themes: The relational encounter, Discovering the person, and Making a difference. In combination these themes show important nuances to existing literature on student career dreams by pointing to the benefits of attending to the moment to moment changes in the care situation.
Subject(s)
Career Choice , Dementia , Geriatrics/education , Health Services for the Aged , Problem-Based Learning/methods , Students, Medical/psychology , Aged , Attitude of Health Personnel , Clinical Competence , Dementia/psychology , Dementia/therapy , Focus Groups , Health Services for the Aged/ethics , Health Services for the Aged/standards , Humans , Motivation , Personnel Selection , StereotypingABSTRACT
In this study we aimed to develop a theoretical account of the experienced benefit of psychomotor therapy in addition to treatment as usual in patients with chronic shoulder pain. The qualitative study design was based on a grounded theory approach. Open-ended face-to-face interviews were conducted after treatment was completed. We generated data and performed analyses by constant comparative analysis and theoretical sampling that focused on the patients' behavioural characteristics related to the experienced benefit of psychomotor therapy. We conducted 12 interviews, eight of which were with men. "Regaining capability" emerged as representative of the pattern of behaviour. Through this pattern, the patients resolved concern about losing capability. Regaining capability involved three behavioural typologies: taking advice, minding the body, and encompassing life changes. The patients' behavioural typologies revealed different levels of life changes. Psychomotor therapy offered the patients in our study new and better ways of coping with their shoulder pain.