Name:

 

Date:

 

Overview: Life Review Interview

This assignment provides the opportunity to develop one-to-one interactions with an elder who resides in the community. The focus is to develop and refine skills in communication and to examine successful aging through the lived experiences of an elder.

 

Completing this assignment will enable you to conduct a Life Review with an older adult, understand the significance of the individualâs life story, identify possible legacies and their importance to the older adult, and describe the degree of ego integrity reached by the older adult. You will also reflect upon the process of conducting a Life Review. Only your initial reflection statements about the interview process must be submitted during Week 3.

 

Contact the older adult the day before the interview to remind him/her about it and to answer any questions about the process that may have arisen. Be sure to review the guidelines and guiding questions before the interview session. Be prompt and professional.

 

All information of a sensitive nature that is shared with you must be kept confidential unless your have the older adultâs permission to share it with others. The Interview Consent Form offers assurance and informs the older adult that the information is kept within the bounds of the course faculty and, where appropriate, with peers in the class. In all written work and discussions, the older adult must be identified by initials only to protect privacy.

 

This document includes guidelines to help you prepare for and conduct the interview, but you are not required to submit answers to the interview questions. Only your initial reflection statements in Part C must be submitted during Week 3.

 

 

Performance Objectives:

• Apply gerontologic nursing principles and standards in nursing practice across the continuum of elder care.
• Use current evidence and theories in care of older adults.
• Conduct a personal interview with an older adult for the purpose of documenting Life Review.

 

 

Rubric

Use this rubric to guide your work on the assignment, âReflections- Life Review Interview.â

 

Reflections on Life Review Interview

Description

After you conduct the Life Review interview, You will record your own feelings and reflections about the interview. Please do not record those of your interviewee! This assignment is to assist you in identifying how you personally felt about the process of interviewing someone about their life.

 

 

Levels of Achievement

Criteria

Novice

Competent

Proficient

Write 3 reflective statements about your feelings after doing the life review interview 

Weight 75.00%

0 %

0-1 reflective statements submitted: or statements are not reflective of the STUDENT's thoughts/feelings. 0 points if student writes about the interviewee's thoughts and feelings rather than the student's

50 %

2 reflective statements are submitted and are student's own reflections, not those of the interviewee

100 %

3 statements submitted that reflect the student's thoughts and feelings (not the interview subject's)

APA Format is used. Correct spelling, punctuation and grammar are used 

Weight 25.00%

0 %

More than 2 errors

50 %

1-2 errors

100 %

No errors

 

1. Preparing for the interview:

1. Be able to explain the purpose and length of the visits (The interview should not exceed two hours. If you are unable to complete the interview in two hours, then schedule another meeting). Be sure to set a mutually agreeable appointment for the time of interview
2. If you have not done so, ask the elder to sign the Interview Consent Form. ( take two copies so that you can leave a copy with the elder.)
3. Reflect upon how you can incorporate therapeutic communication skills in your interview.
4. Review the Interview Guide. The elder does have the right to refuse to answer any question â please honor that right.
5. DO NOT attempt to ask all the example questions in this guide. Use them as ideas to break the ice if you run out of questions to ask. DO NOT record the interview and DO NOT present a list of questions asked and answers in your Life Review Analysis paper next week. You are meant to reflect on and analyze what you discuss in the interview rather than quote it word for word.
6. Be sure you do your reading on what the goals and benefits of Life Review are before you do the interview.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Conducting the interview: These questions can serve as a guide during the interview. You are not required to submit the answers to the questions. Do not attempt to ask all these questions!

 

 

Brief Biography

Age:

Gender:

Race/Ethnicity:

Distinguishing characteristics of the individual:

 

 

Childhood

1.           What was life like for you as a child?

2.           What were your parents like? What were their strengths and weaknesses?

3.           Did you have any brothers or sisters? If so, tell me what each was like.

4.           Did someone close to you die when you were growing up?

5.           Do you ever remember being very sick?

6.           Was religion a large part of your life?

 

Adolescence

1.           What things stand out in your memory about being a teenager?

2.           Who were the important people for you (parents, brothers, sisters, friends, teachers, those you were especially close to, those you admired, those you wanted to be like)? Tell me about them.

3.           Did you go to school? What was its meaning to you?

4.           Did you work during those years?

5.           What were the pleasant things about your adolescence?

6.           What was the most unpleasant thing about your adolescence?

 

 

Family and Home

1.           What was the atmosphere in your home?

2.           Who were you closest to in your family?

3.           Who in your family were you most like? In what way?

 

 

Adulthood

1.           Now Iâd like to talk to you about your life as an adult, from when you were in your 20s up to today. Tell me of the most important events that happened in your adulthood.

2.           What was life like for you in your 20s and 30s?

3.           Tell me about your work. Did you enjoy work? Did you earn an adequate living

4.           Did you marry?

           If [No], why not?

           If [Yes], on the whole, would you say you had a happy or an unhappy marriage?

           Were you married more than once?

5.           What were some of the main difficulties you encountered during your adult years?

a.   Did someone close to you die? Go away?

b.   Were you ever sick? Have an accident?

c.    Did you move often? Change jobs?

d.   Did you ever feel alone? Abandoned?

e.   Did you ever feel needy?

 

 

Summary Questions

 

1.           On the whole, what kind of life do you think you have had?

 

2.           What would you say have been the three main satisfactions in your life? Why were they satisfying?

 

3.           Everyone has had disappointments. What have been the main disappointments in your

life?

 

4.           What was the hardest thing you had to face in your life? Please describe it.

 

5.           What was the happiest period of your life? What about it made it the happiest period? 

 

6.           What was the proudest moment in your life?

 

7.           How do you think you have made out in life â better or worse than what you hoped for?

 

8.           Letâs talk a little about you as you are now. What are the best things about the age you are now?

 

9.           What are the worst things about being the age you are now?

 

10.         What are the most important things to you in your life today?

 

11.         What do you hope will happen to you as you grow older?

 

12.         What do you fear will happen to you as you grow older?

 

13.         Have you enjoyed participating in this review of your life?

 

 

4.           This section is what you will complete for your Week 2 Reflections assignment:

Reflective statements: Record three different/separate reflective statements about the interview as soon as possible after its completion. You will expand upon your reflection in your final paper during Week 4. Only record your personal reflections, not what your interviewee said or felt!. How did you feel about the conversation? Did it cause you to think about how you or your loved ones are aging? Any changes you might want to make in your lifestyle? Parts of the interview that were particularly significant or upsetting to you? These are some examples of reflective statements, however you may have others as well.