Spiller det noen rolle? - om hverdagen på nye og gamle sykehjem

Does it matter? – everyday life in new and old nursing homes: Public care for the elderly in Norway is restructured in attempts to make their services more efficient. The goal is to fulfil the needs and wishes of the elderly persons themselves and those working in the field. A part of this process is to build new and smaller nursing homes with more private rooms. Other changes are oriented towards more professional employees. Some changes are not ea sy to discover. These changes concerns relationships between the elderly and their caretakers. An important question is what possibilities these new and old nursing homes give for self-determination and need fulfilment for those involved in the care-relations? Evidence point to that both new and old nursing homes prove satisfactory, but there are some weaknesses to both models. The size of the wards in the old nursing home proved to be a strain on the social environment. The new and small nursing homes seems to be more vulnerable to changes. The new orientation in the public care for the elderly gives structures which may strenghten some attitudes and weaken others in the everyday care provided by the caretakers. This is not only a question about more private rooms, but also a question about finding ways of organizing which creates trust between the elderly and their the caretakers. In future studies it is crucial to compare wards and institutions with the same size to find which routines that seems to endorse the elderlys possibilities for self-determination and activity