Research Log #7 - Solutionary Project 2020 

Date: Mar. 20, 2020

Name: Celina Taramasco
Essential Question: How can our community support the older generation?
 
Three Points to Prove: #1:  Caring for the elderly prevents social isolation and reduces health risks.
                                        #2: Taking care of the elderly allows us to learn from their experiences.
                                        #3:  Helping the older generation gives them a sense of purpose.
 
Point that this Source Proves: #3: Helping the older generation gives them a sense of purpose.

Excerpts (These should provide insight into the Point to Prove): 

According to the PMC article, “more deeply understanding how older long-term care residents perceive
meaning and purpose in life is critical for improving the quality of care and the resident’s quality of life.”

The article states that “four key experience were found to promote meaning and purpose in life: 1)
physical and mental well-being, 2) belonging and recognition, 3) personally treasured activities and 4)
spiritual closeness and connectedness.”

“Meaning and purpose in life are fundamental to human beings”, according to the study done by Jorunn
Drageset, Gorill Haugan, and Oscar Tranvag.

Analysis (How does this source support the Point to Prove?): 

The scholarly article, Crucial aspects promoting meaning and purpose in life: perceptions of
nursing home residents, talks about meaning and purpose in life and how it affects people’s quality of life.
“Meaning and purpose in life are fundamental to human beings” and understanding this is critical for
improving elderly care and their quality of life. The authors of this journal conducted a study to explore
nursing home residents’ experience of meaning and purpose in their everyday life. Purpose in life refers
to intention or an aim to be met or to be achieved. Meaning refers to making sense of or establishing a
reason in one’s existence.
Elderly people may be exposed to stressful events such as a loss of a home or losing a spouse,
relatives and friends. These conditions may influence their well-being and quality of life so it is crucial
that they find a meaning and purpose for overall satisfaction. This study interviewed people 65 years and
older mainly asking about what bring meaning into their life and what are their experiences. The studied
found that four main themes were crucial for the study participants to experience meaning and purpose in
their everyday lives: experiencing physical and mental well-being, experiencing belonging and
recognition, experiencing personally treasured activities, and experiencing spiritual connectedness and
closeness.
The experience of well-being, physically as well as mentally, was related to the nursing home
residents’ sense of meaning and purpose in everyday life. Many participants in the study required
assistance to get out of bed, wash and dress each morning. The nursing home residents experienced the
nursing assistance as a meaningful way to start their day and an opportunity for maintain personal
hygiene and well-being. Belonging and feeling recognized by others were connected to the nursing home
residents’ experience of meaning and purpose in life. Experiencing good relationships with friends and
family with mutual respect, contribute towards positive and uplifting fellowship, promoting meaning and
purpose in life. Enjoying outdoor life and sharing valuable togetherness are crucial meaning0promoting
resources. Having a religious conviction and feeling the mercy of one’s god were also essential meanin-
promoting aspects.

Work Cited (correct MLA format): 

Drageset, Jorunn et al. “Crucial aspects promoting meaning and purpose in life: perceptions of nursing
home residents.” BMC geriatrics vol. 17,1 254. 30 Oct. 2017, doi:10.1186/s12877-017-0650-x

This is a reputable and reliable article because BMCS Geriatrics operates an open peer-review system
to assess the quality of the manuscript before it is published.

Celina Taramasco
Mrs. Nourrie
English 11E
20 March 2020

Journal 7:

This week, my partner and I learned a lot of new things about our topic. We have done a

lot of research and are finding new ways we can improve our project. However, there have been

a lot of challenges lately due to the corona virus. For example, because of COVID-19 all

Catholic Masses have been canceled. So, I will not be able to advertise the project at church or

collect any service requests from parishioners. I am not quite sure how we are going to get out

service done with this virus because we have to limit our contact with other people. We are

trying our best to come up with a contingency plan in case that we cannot do a volunteer service

project by April.
 I am going to see if I can contact Aunty Mele and ask if she has received any request

forms and if she can digitally send me it. We will have to probably pick a project that does not

require a group bigger than ten people and try to stay away from the elderly person we are

helping. We will have to research about COVID-19 in order to make sure the service project is

safe for everyone and there is no chance of spreading of receiving the virus.