Promoting Elderly Residents' Quality of Life: Design Consideration for Bathing Experiences in the Nursing Home

Abstract: Bathing elderly residents with assistance is a daily service provided in the Nursing Home (NH). However, it has been widely discussed that assisting bathing is one of the most challenging tasks in caregivers’ service process, and bathing experiences are closely related to the residents’ Quality of Life (QoL). Based on the findings from previous ergonomic studies, elderly residents’ agitated behaviors in the bathing process like repetitious vocalizations, used to communicate or express elderly residents’ unmet needs, are the primary cause of stress for caregivers. Thus, this study proposes design considerations for bathing activities in NHs under the theoretical models of QoL and needs, and it also assumes appropriate design for products and services can minimize the elderly’s agitated behaviors by addressing their unmet needs, which may help improve user experience and release care workers’ workload.

Keywords: Cognitive ergonomics, Elderly in the nursing Home, Bathing experiences, Product and service, Design consideration.

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1002040

Cite this paper:

​