Emotional communication with older people: A cross-sectional study of home care

Abstract

The aim of this study was to explore the influence of characteristics of nurses andolder people on emotional communication in home care settings. A generalized, lin-ear, mixed model was used to analyze 188 audio-recorded home care visits codedwith Verona Coding Definitions of Emotional Sequences. The results showed thatmost emotional distress was expressed by older females or with female nurses. Theelicitation of an expression of emotional distress was influenced by the nurses' nativelanguage and profession. Older women aged 65–84 years were given the most spacefor emotional expression. We found that emotional communication was primarilyinfluenced by sex for nurses and older people, with an impact on the frequency ofexpressions of and responses to emotional distress. Expressions of emotional distressby older males were less common and could risk being missed in communication. Theresults have implications for students' and health professionals' education inincreasing their knowledge of and attentiveness to the impacts of their and others'characteristics and stereotypes on emotional communication with older people.