Effects of an Empowerment Program on the Adjustment of Older Adults to Nursing Home Life

Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the empowerment intervention on the levels of self-esteem, inter-personal relationships and adjustment to nursing home life of the Korean nursing home residents. Methods: Participants (n=47) whose period of stay was less than one year were purposefully selected from 3 nursing homes in Korea. The experi-mental group (n=21) attended 10 weekly hour-long empowerment sessions. The empowerment program comprised two com-ponents; group education and group discussion. The control group (n=26) received a two-hour education about health man-agement. Results: Compared with the control group, the experimental group showed significantly higher mean scores of self-esteem (t=5.51, p<.001), interpersonal relationships (t=2.73, p =.009) and adjustment to nursing home life (t=2.10, p =.041). Conclusion: Findings of this study suggest that empowerment interventions may be effective in enhancing nursing home resi-dents ’ self-esteem, interpersonal relationships and adjustment to nursing home life. Future research is needed to determine if such an empowerment program could be used with newly institutionalized elders to speed as well as enhance their adjust