Personal and Shared Control of Space as Perceived by Nursing Home Residents

Abstract

To build an initial taxonomy of nursing home resident's perceptions, 17 residents of College Hill Professional Care Center, Manhattan, Kansas, described their environment by telling how they would organize a hypothetical tour of their facility. Their descriptions were classified as follows: people oriented, activity oriented, physical oriented, or a combination of these factors. The combination of people-activity-physical was viewed as a measure of personal control, whereas the combination of people-activities was taken as a measure of shared control of space. The results showed that the residents own room was a perceived area of identity indicating a large measure of personal control. The dining room, on the other hand, was a potential area of identity, indicating a large amount of shared control.