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

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: 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. BACKGROUND: 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. MAIN CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS: 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. CONCLUSIONS: 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. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: 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.

The importance of being ironic: narrative openness and personal resilience in later life.

This essay applies a narrative perspective to the topic of resilience. On various fronts (physical, social, biographical), aging itself, it argues, pushes us past a perception of aging as intrinsically tragic and toward a more ironic stance instead, one marked by increased acceptance of uncertainty and ambiguity. Moreover, intentional engagement in narrative reflection-by means of integrative reminiscence, life review, and the like-fosters such a stance directly by facilitating narrative openness and, with it, "a good strong story" for coping with the challenges of later life.

The anthropology of dementia: a narrative perspective.

This article draws on recent thinking in the field of narrative gerontology to lend support to Mahnaz Hashmi's "anthropological perspective" on dementia. From a narrative perspective, the relational component of human life--and thus of dementia--is underscored. Moreover, when the narrative dimensions of memory are considered, the line between "normal" and "pathological" is revealed as finer than commonly assumed.

Time, story, and wisdom: emerging themes in narrative gerontology.

Narrative approaches in the field of aging are receiving increasing attention by theorists and practitioners alike. This article draws on recent thinking in narrative gerontology to look at three aspects of aging on which a narrative perspective can shed further light. In relation to the temporal aspects, the notion of storytime is examined. Concerning its poetical aspects, the article considers the stages, styles, genres, contexts, and selves of self-storying. Under spiritual aspects, the topics of meaning and identity are explored. A discussion of these aspects may be seen to converge on the theme of wisdom and the possibility of wisdom environments.