Unwanted and dignity-preserving care

Two opposing things can be true at the same time. Nursing care can be absolutely unwanted by a person living with dementia, and that same care can be integral to preserving a person’s dignity. My image depicts a state-of-the-art bathtub in a local long-term care facility, alongside a resolute 'no'. I have filled a tub just like this one many times since I started my career as a Registered Nurse, and the majority of those baths have been welcome and pleasurable opportunities for residents. The residents who have refused outright and for whom I have had to make difficult decisions about gently persuading and sometimes forcing care stand out, though, as I move forward in my research. In this image, my maternal grandparents (bottom left and right) stand in as proxies for the many residents who have said “no” to my care, and whose faces are imprinted on my mind. Residents who, like them, were strong-willed and fiercely private. My research focuses on residents’ “no’s” to personal hygiene care, and how nurses hear and respond to them.