Evaluation of life satisfaction of pensioners (healthcare institutions,homecare agencies, retirement houses)

Theoretical concepts: The central topic of my thesis is the life satisfaction of the elderly, although this concept is perceived very subjectively. Moreover, it varies even in one person at different life stages and it depends on various circumstances and events that accompany people on their life journeys. However, experiencing satisfaction always requires the saturation of one's needs, physical ones as well as mental, social and spiritual ones. Most of the times, one is able to provide for their needs, or at least affect them, through their activities and their will, but the older ones grows, the more one becomes dependent on others in this respect. This task is usually taken in part by one's family members who are willing to help and take care of their close relative, but there also arise situations where one has to entrust themselves into the hands of health professionals, especially nurses. The nurses' tasks do not just include staffing surgeries, but it is necessary for them to pay attention to the individual needs of their clients. Importance of both these components of care is entirely equivalent, because treatment success depends largely on the psychological state, defined by the satisfaction of the clients' life needs, and, on the other hand, the measure a patients' well-being is strongly influenced by the state of their health depending on successful treatment. Professional care that their clients receive is often linked to the placement of the elderly in some health institutions; possibly there may be a situation when an elderly person stays in their home and receives care from field medical staff for only a few hours a day. In any case, the objective of such care, through whatever methods it is provided, should be to achieve the highest possible degree of satisfaction of elderly individuals. Objectives of the thesis: To find out about subjective evaluation of life satisfaction of the elderly depending on their age To find out about subjective evaluation of life satisfaction of the elderly depending on their sex To find out about subjective evaluation of life satisfaction of the elderly depending on institution type Hypotheses: H1: Men are more satisfied than women H2: Satisfaction of the elderly decreases as they grow older H3: The most satisfied are the elderly who use the services of ADP Methods: The method of quantitative research was used in the practical part. For this purpose, the reduced SQUALA standardized questionnaire was used. It had been transferred to interview form due to the age of the target group of the elderly. The obtained data was processed with Microsoft Office Excel and some calculations were made with the Statistica programme. Answers from one hundred respondents were obtained as part of the survey; the respondents came from South Bohemia, particularly from the Český Krumlov and České Budějovice regions. Three types of health care institutions were contacted: a home care agency, retirement homes and hospital aftercare wards. Fifteen elderly persons were obtained for cooperation in the home care agency, 39 persons in retirement homes and 46 persons in hospitals. Results: The results of the survey show that satisfaction of the elderly is most affected by the type of health institution used, i.e. by the environment in which they are provided with health care. Definitely the most satisfied are the people who use the services of the home care agency. On the other hand, age or sex did not play a significant role when evaluating life satisfaction. Conclusion: The importance of this thesis may lie mostly in the opportunity to use the acquired knowledge, regarding the satisfaction of the elderly and the factors that influence this satisfaction, to improve the quality of care provided by nurses and other health staff