Yuting Song
Degree
Ph.D. in Philosophy ’17Project Team
I conducted my fieldwork from July to September in two nursing homes in China. With the support of the Bass Connections Follow-on Student Research grant, I was able to recruit 21 residents at different functional levels and explored their care needs related to physical function. I gained more knowledge about care needs of residents who live in Chinese nursing homes, in addition to those of community-based frail elders. In combination with this Bass Connections project, the knowledge of older adults’ needs both in community settings and nursing homes will inform curriculum development for the healthcare workforce across different care settings.
Also, I was able to trial the Chinese version of the Social Convoy Questionnaire with two residents. By doing so, I got a better understanding of residents’ social networks and learned more about the feasibility of using this tool among the population of Chinese nursing home residents. The knowledge is valuable for designing future studies to explore social networks within Chinese nursing homes.
I did not take any photos of the facilities, to maintain confidentiality of participants and the research sites; these two pictures are of older adults in communities, which is the focus population of the Bass Connections project.