The challenge of feeling 'at home' in residential aged care in New Zealand.

Approximately 30,000 older adults live in residential aged care (nursing homes) in New Zealand, but little has been known of life in these homes, except for occasional and often sensational news reports. Advertisements for nursing homes however portray a world that is a 'home away from home', promising prospective residents individualised care and comfort. The reality is somewhat different, as the stories of residents who participated in a recent critical ethnography of three New Zealand nursing homes demonstrate. In this research report, one of those residents reveals the challenges associated with firstly becoming a nursing home resident, and then trying to establish a new sense of 'home'. The story supports a conclusion that nurses' knowledge of the unique 'admission story' of each resident, and their individual understandings of home, is essential in promoting their ongoing comfort.