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National Economics University
Faculty of International Education
IBD program
-----0O0-----

TOPIC: OLD PEOPLE AND NURSING HOMES

JUNE 2010

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ACKNOWLEADGEMENT
First of all, I want to send my grateful to my teacher: Pham Phuong Lan giving
my group valuable advice to help us complete this project.
Secondly, I would like to express particular thanks to all students of National
Economics University

who have helped me to collect the data for this study and

supported me during the completion of this paper.

Lastly, I hope that everybody reading this report will feel satisfied. If I have
carelessness, please sympathize with me.
Vu Thi Quynh Nga

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Content
Part I : Introduction
4
•

Topic

4
• Background
•

4
Rational

4
• Purpose
4
• Methodology
•

5
Scope of study

5
• Research question
5

• Literature review
5
Part II : Major findings
9
•

What is nursing home?

9
• What are the reasons for living in nursing homes of old people?
10
• What is the situation of old people in nursing home?
16
→ The feeling of old people when they live in nursing homes

17
→ The advantages of nursing home..........................................................................18
→ The disadvantages of nursing homes
19
• What is the thought of student about taking old people to nursing homes in Vietnam?
21
• Are nursing homes necessary? And why are they necessary?............................
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Part IV: Conclusion
24
Part V: Preference

26
Part VI: Appendix
27

Introduction
Topic: Old people and nursing home
Title: The thought of students about :
• The concept of nursing home
• The reason for living in nursing homes of old people
• The lives of old people in nursing homes
Background:
In this day and age, the more developed the life is, the busier people are.
This is a reason why a number of people have no time to take care their parents,
and one solution is put is that they take their parents to the nursing home where
they think that their parents will have better life than outside. A lot of opinions
are given around this problem, some people agree but others disagree.
Old people always want to have a warm life beside their children, but in some
cases, there are not all of the old people having this ( ex: old people don’t have
family or some of them are refused to take care by their children…..) , they are
compulsory to choose to live in nursing home, and also many old people die in
there in loneliness. In this writing, the readers can find the fact of the old people’
lives in nursing homes.

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Rational: The reason why I choose this topic is that I am curious about the
lives of old people in nursing home .Besides this , I also would like to know the

ideas of students about living in nursing home of old people and the thought of
students when adults take old people to nursing homes.
Purpose:
•

The purpose of this project is to investigate the thought of student about

the reasons for living in nursing home of old people
• The outlook of student about feeling of old people in nursing home
• Student’s thought about necessary of nursing home and is this good or
bad when adults take their old people to nursing home.
Methodology: In order to collect data, I used both primary data and secondary
data.
•

For the primary data, 30 questionnaires which include 11 survey questions

were distributed to 30 National economic students in Ha Noi. Then, the data were
classified, synthesized and analyzed.
• For the secondary data, i used some document on the internet such as :
/>u-18-21282401.html

;

/>
su/170553/On-nghia-sinh-thanh---Ky-cuoi-%E2%80%9CTrung-tam-bao-hieu
%E2%80%9D.html.........
Scope of the study: in this writing, i will concentrate on the student in some
universities
Research questions

1.
2.
3.
4.

What is the nursing home?
What are the reasons for living in nursing homes of old people?
What is the situation of old people in nursing homes?
How do students think about taking old people to nursing homes.? Are nursing
homes necessary?

Literature review
The older should live in nursing home ( unknown- Vn express)
/>According to the author of this writing, the old people should live in nursing
home for these below reasons:

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Old people are living in a quiet atmosphere, peace, friendship, solidarity and
freedom. They are not affected by air noise, busy, hurry, stress ... of class young
people which they are confronted in their daily lives.
Young people are free to do what they love in life in their house without
disturbing their elderly people. They can live their lifestyle and older people also
live their own way in the heart of nursing. This helps to avoid conflicts between
two different generations living together in one house.
The old people really can rest comfortably for the last stage of their lives
without being annoyed by the work as going to market , cooking , house

cleaning, taking children to school and picking them home, worrying children
when they fights, caring for the children, bathing and washing for children....
The author also gives his opinion about money of the old people. He said that
the old people should not give their children all of the assets, they can only give
them when they die by wills
Taking the old people into nursing care is heartless ( unknown- Viet bao)
/>The author of this newspaper said that he was very sympathetic to the idea that
the need for nursing. Terms of nursing science is to solve the most encumbered in
modern life of man. Putting the old people in nursing home is the same with
taking children in kindergarten so. But that really has to be a good thing to do or
not?
In his opinion , nursing home , if people look on the human side of it, like a
"prison", a "concentration camp" for the old people. It creates utility for society,
people who still have ability to work do not worry about their parents, but it is
really unfair for the old people who have devoted their lives to their families and
society, and then they have to return in the cold home and live alone in a small
space like that.
There should be multiple rates for nursing home( unknown- tin274)
/>-18-21282407.html
Currently the life of our people have been improving, the family has only one
or two children. On the other hand, because of the market mechanism and the
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demands of the job so the young people do not have time to take care of their
parents. If they can take care, they are not professional to help their old people.
From the author point of view , these reasons why Viet Nam should extend the
services for the old people, regarding funding, there should be a prescribed

lowest price for basic services, and other advanced services depends on the
conditions of each person registered. So what, at first opinion cannot support, but
if the center works well and effectively they will surely be appreciated and social
support.
Need to change perception nursing home(unknown-viet bao)
/>In this article , the author said that her mother has problem about metal health ,
so she does not know how to take care his mother while she has to go for
working. Everyday she always worries about her mother , if she lets her mother
at home and lock the door, she feels uncomfortable. So she believes that nursing
home is the best way to help her and her mother, she wants everybody to change
their thought about nursing home. She herself wants her old life in a nursing
home with a relative comfort to live happily, live healthily and not bother
anyone.
Nursing home is not suitable to Vietnam's conditions( unknown- tin 274
/>m-18-21298965.html
In this writing, the author said that nursing home in Viet Nam is not good and
suitable for old people. He gave some reasons below
Firstly , the nursing home has yet developed,

people in there are not

professional to take care old people
Secondly , psychology, habits and lifestyles of Vietnam are very different from
Europe, America, this remedy is not easy.
Thirdly is the funding problem. The old people do not have enough capital to
cover their own for themselves, especially in rural areas, but this rate in our
country is high.
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He is sure that if our country is a nursing model in advanced countries as it
surely will attract the old people . It is also an effective form of business and
future for an increasing elderly and thinking also changed the rhythm of industrial
life.
Let parents live in nursing home is not ungrateful towards parents
/>t_hieu-18-21282401.html
The author of this writing is opinion of taking parents to nursing home. He
said that the model of nuclear families was upward trend in comparison with the
model of traditional families in Viet Nam nowadays. He supposed that this was
apodictic thing because of its advantages . This makes children have more
confidences in our lives, …, especially avoid the conflicts which are too
complicated by so many generations in a family. As a result in a family, there are
children and their families, not grandparents or older generations.
However some people also argued that the elderly people do not live with
their families is not appropriate . This is not exact because in fact although old
people live with their children, they may not be cared of by their children , even
the person caring them may be a housekeeper. He also said that there were some
adults being not responsible to take care, even they pushed responsibilities for
each other . On the contrary if old people stay in nursing home, they will be
cared well about both health and spirit
In conclusion, he believed that Old people living in nursing home felt better
than lived with their families with suffering unhappiness , tiredness because of
conflicts between different generation.

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Major findings
I, WHAT IS NURSING HOME?
There are many ideas about concept of nursing home. In the first part of this
writing, some ideas about what nursing home is of Vietnamese student will be
showed

This chart reflects the thought of student in some universities in Ha Noi about
concept of nursing home.
As can be seen obviously that the number of students choosing the fourth
concept about nursing home( Nursing home is a place where old people are cared
of and helped to have a better life) is by far the highest, 44%, compared with
other ideas. The second place belongs to the first concept ( Nursing home is a
place where old people who don’t have house or children to take care of them
live) with 26% people choose. The percentage of students choosing the third
concept being half of this chooses the fourth concept accounts for 21% in total.
There are not many people choose the concept being that Nursing home is a place
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where old people who are going to die live, this ratio makes up about 8%. The
smallest proportion of choosing is on other ideas, just 1% student choose this
idea.
With nearly 44% people chooses the fourth concept, this can be said that most
of student think that living in nursing home, old people are cared of and helped to
have a better life.
However a more interesting thing is that besides four concepts about nursing
home given, 1% people giving their own ideas are also real. For example: Some

people have common ideas is that nursing home is like kindergarten of old
people. When they asked why they thought this, they argued that there was no
difference between nursing home and kindergarten. Others think that nursing
home is like old people’s families , or homes. , old people can livee comfortably
in there…
To conclude, these data collected support the idea that most of people have a

positive view about nursing home.
“A nursing home is a place for people who don't need to be in a hospital but
can't be cared for at home. Most nursing homes have nursing aides and skilled
nurses on hand 24 hours a day. Some nursing homes are set up like a hospital.
The staff provides medical care, as well as physical, speech and occupational
therapy. There might be a nurses' station on each floor. Other nursing homes try
to be more like home. They try to have a neighborhood feel. Some nursing homes
have special care units for people with serious memory problems such as
Alzheimer's disease. Some will let couples live together. Nursing homes are not
only for the elderly, but for anyone who requires 24-hour care.”
Source: />
II, WHAT ARE THE REASONS FOR LIVING IN
NURSING HOMES OF OLD PEOPLE?
There are some reasons for living in nursing home of old people. In this part,
reader will be approached to the thought of students about this problem. 30
students served as subjects to answer five questions in the survey questionnaire of
this research designed to investigate the thought of student about this problem.
First of all, a conditional question which was handed in to students showed
their opinions about taking their elderly people to nursing home or not.
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This pie chart reflects the rate of students answering yes or no to question: If
your family had old people, would you want to take them to nursing home. It can
be seen obviously that 90% student chose “No” and the rest of them chose “Yes”.
These figures seem to show that most of the students do not want to take their old
people or parents to nursing home.
• Suppositions
After the conditional question, two suppositional questions were set in order to
investigate more clearly about reason for living in nursing home of old people. In
particular these questions were concentrated on the personal reason and objective
reason of individual.

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Two pie chart reveal the percentage of students choosing dissimilar answers in
two different reasons personal and objective reason for questions involving to
take old people to nursing home.
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•

Personal reason

In the first pie chart, the question which was provided is that “ With

supposition that you have to take old people to nursing home, What are the your
personal reasons?” . It can be seen from graph that the rate of students choosing
the first answer covers by far the highest figure with 46% in total. The second
biggest area belongs to next reason: I don’t have enough support (ex: money,
accommodation..). This comprises to 27% of total. Interestingly the proportion of
students choosing the third reason ( I don’t like living with old people) is the
smallest constitutes to 8%, while the ratio of students ticking to other ideas or
other reasons being bigger than that of choosing the third reason account for
19%. When students who chose other ideas were asked for these reasons or ideas,
a general answer which was given was that they had no personal reason. They
said that they wanted to their parents or old people live with them, and they
would care old people by themselves. A girl said that she always wanted to take
care of her parents although she would be poor or rich. She would like to spend
her time on her parents. Contrary to students choosing three reasons above,
students of last reason are very determined to live and care their parents in any
situation.
•

Objective reason.

In comparison with chart of personal idea, in chart of objective reasons also
has some outstanding features. The first place and second place come to the
percentage of students choosing the first reason and the third reason, namely “Old
people like living in nursing home , so I let them live in there” and “there is safer
life in nursing home than outside”. These make up 40% and 30% respectively.
The rate of students choosing the reason being that “following the trend” consists
of 12% in total. Just 9% students tick for Other ideas.
•

Conclusion


When the data are analyzed according to the pie chart, it is found that most of
the student asked cannot live and take care of their parents or old people unless
they are too busy, they have no spare time. They do not want to take their parents
or old people to nursing home unless old like living in there, so they are taken to.
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Besides the reasons for living in nursing home of old people which comes
from their children or their families, these also come from old people themselves.

There is a similar percentage of people choosing the first reason( old people do
not have house or children, so they want to find a place to live till they die) and
the forth reason( old people are compelled to live by their children or families).
These stand at 27%. The second position is recorded by the level of student
ticking the reasons being that “ old people are refused be cared for by their
children or families”. This is up to 23%. About 14% of students think that old
people feel tired and exhausted to their life , so they choose nursing home to live.
Other reasons are turned in by 9% of students.
In conclusion most of the students think that old people live in nursing home
because of not having house or children to be taken care of, and being compelled
to live by their children.
•

The fact.

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Although three questionnaires in this survey are set with supposition, in fact
there is no less situation happening with old people’s lives .In this day and age,
people’s lives are busier and busier, hence this is easy to understand why adults
do not have enough time to care of their parents or old people. However nothing
is impossible, problem just is that they would like to take care of their parents or
not. Some families who are not rich, even poor, but they still want to care for
their old people. They supposed that old people would have the best life when
they are lived with their children or families. On the contrary despite having rich
life and comfortable, some families refuse or give up living with their old people.
They argued that Old people is very complicated and make them feel
troublesome. It is a good solution to push old people out or take them to nursing
home.
Also there are some situations old people are so credulous that they are
cheated by their own children. In contrast to this problem, others are voluntary to
live in nursing home because of thinking to their children’s lives. Taking an
example for the first position, one circumstance is given like a special problem.
One old man transferred his own house to their children after hearing the
insistency of his children. His daughter said that she was very poor and needed
his house bought. He accepted , however, after receiving the amount of money
his daughter needed, she gave him 2000$ and said hẻ father that he became
useless and she would not take care him more, he should hold 2000$ and find a
place to live by himself. He and his wife had to rent a house and live with 2000$.
Finally, his wife passed away and he had to find to nursing home and live lonely.
Another example is given for the second situation is that some parents know
that their families or children are too poor or busy, so they are voluntary to go to
nursing home to avoid the difficulties for their families or children.
•


Conclusion

When everything has been discussed above, a conclusion can be drawn that
most of students today would rather take care of their old people or parents than
take them to nursing home except old people would like to live in nursing home.

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III, WHAT IS THE SITUATION OF OLD
PEOPLE IN NURSING HOMES IN VIETNAM ?
• The feeling of old people when they live in nursing home.
First of all, it is important to know how old people feel when they live in
nursing home. For this reason, 30 questionnaires are handed out to 30 students
and 30 old people to take compare the thought of student about feeling of old
people in nursing home and old people’s real feeling when they live in old
people’s home.
Two pie chart below reflect this

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It is obvious that in the first chart the highest fertility rate is for “lonely, sad” at
almost 43% students choose. This is the same to chart second chart, when the
ratio of old people choosing the second feeling is by the highest. In contrast to

the percentage of students choosing the first idea (happy, cozy, comfortable) in
chart A which makes up 21% is just half of the level of old people choosing this
idea that accounts for roughly 40%. Some other ideas which are that “the feeling
of old people when they live in nursing home depend on each people and their
reason” ; “ old people may feel happy, but sometime they sad; old people do not
like to live in nursing home” ; “30% old people feel happy and satisfactory, and
70% old people miss their”…..are covered by around 21% students. On the
contrary, there are no old people choosing “Other idea”. The smallest proportion
students choosing belongs to the third idea ( normal) with 15%. Meanwhile, the
third idea being chosen by old people is recorded by just 10% in total.
It can be concluded that most of student in this investigation recognize that old
people feel “ lonely and sad” when they live in nursing home.
•

The advantages of old people when they live in nursing home.
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This question is set with purpose is that outsider can know about living of old
people in nursing home.

The pie chart represents the thought of students about advantages of old people
when they live in nursing home.
As can be seen that the third idea ranks a top the survey at 30% ( old people
don’t feel lonely and sad because they have more friend to chat or
communicate) . This shows that the biggest advantage of old people living in
nursing home is that they have friends. In fact, a sense of community is a
advantage of nursing home. People of all ages prefer to have at least some

contacts with others in their own age .When elderly parents live with their busy
daughters or sons , they feel sorrow because they cannot share their thought to
children . In nursing home , they have friends to communicate share the same
ideas,
Being chosen by 25% students for each of them, the first idea( The facilities in
nursing home are better than outside) and the last idea( Old people can attend to a
lot of activities to forget the old age) are also popular reasons for living in nursing
home of old people. Nowadays, there are some qualified nursing homes in Viet
Nam are focusing to hold some day trips for old people to go out to change the
atmosphere , these help old people forget their old age and improve their health.
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The ratio of students choosing the second idea (Old people are taken care of
more carefully than their families when they live in nursing home) is the
smallest , this constitutes 20% in total. This proves that most of the students in
survey do not think that their parents or old people can be cared of more carefully
in nursing home than in old people’s families. On the contrary, the fact is by far
different to the thought of student. Time and healthcare are an important
advantage which nursing home can provide to adults and their old people. Most
of the nursing homes are staffed with healthcare professional 24 hour a day.
Although doctors may not be there in the middle of night, nurses are more than
likely in there to keep a watchful eye on residents throughout the night. The
biggest problem adults have to face is that they do not have enough time to take
care their parents or elderly people. Most adults already have busy schedules, so
most people cannot simply handle everything involving elderly people in addition
to responsibilities.
•


The disadvantages of living in nursing home of old people.

To conclude this part, the thought of students about disadvantages of living in
nursing home of old people will be given.

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The rate of students choosing the first idea (old people have to live far away
from their home) is by far the biggest with 30% . The second position comes to
the second idea( Their children do not often visit them) and the fourth idea
(Living in nursing home makes old people’s children be thought to be ungrateful
towards their parent) with 26% of each. In comparison with other disadvantages,
the third disadvantage is that when old people die, there are few even none
relatives beside them is covered by just 18% students..
 Some disadvantages of living in nursing home of old people in fact
besides disadvantages which are depicted in questionnaire
Although there are some striking advantages, nursing home still exists some
outstanding disadvantages such as expense, lack of freedom and sort of near
relations.
• Not all, however, some qualified nursing home in Vietnam being very
expensive might actually be beyond the possibility for many families. Unless old
people have set aside their own retirement money for nursing home expenses,
individuals might not be able to handle the heavy burden that nursing home costs
represent.
• Some nursing homes are so structured that freedom is sacrificed. Owing to
dangers in outside nursing home example accidents ..., managers of nursing

homes do not let old people go out without accepting of their children or families.
• Living in nursing home means that elder parents have a little bit time to
meet their children or grandchildren . Some old people live in nursing home
without seeing or hearing about their families, even when they die. Also there are
many old people who die do not have any near relationship beside them.

IV, THE THOUGHT OF STUDENTS ABOUT
TAKING OLD PEOPLE TO NURSING HOMES.

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An interesting feature is that more than half of students choose that they have
no ideas( with 54%). The proportion of students answering other ideas covers
about 30%.Most of the students choosing other ideas said that it depended on the
situation of old people and others think that sometime good, sometime bad. 13%
students supposes that taking old people to nursing home is good and just 3%
argue that this problem is bad .

V, ARE NURSING HOME NECESSARY ?

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It is very delightful that many students said that they wanted to care for their
elder parents, however, they still chose that nursing home is necessary. The

percentage of students choosing Yes in this question account for 83%, and just
17% students say No.
WHY IS NURSING HOME NECESSARY?

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To students choosing Yes, they are handed in more one questions than that
choosing NO.
The level of students choosing the fourth reason is up to 32%, by far the
highest number.
Being chosen by 26% students, the first idea covers the second place. The ratio
of students giving the third reason reaches 23%. The number of students choosing
the second idea is half of that of choosing the first idea with 13%. Other ideas are
ticked by just 6%.
Actually, most of reasons for being necessary of nursing home are the
advantages of nursing home, so this part does not repeat. This part just
emphasizes the most important reason why nursing home is good for old people
in student’s opinion is that the old people do not feel lonely when they live in
nursing home. Besides, also one thing contrast to my thought, not much students
think that nursing home is important to save time for old people’s children. This
depicts that currently, most of students would rather not take their parents to
nursing home when they become older.

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CONCLUSION
SOLUTION TO REDUCE DISADVANTAGES OF NURSING HOME
Nursing homes are built in order to make a good place for old people who do
not have families or children to care for living. Paralleling with advantages,
nursing home still exists some disadvantaged features. Some solutions will be
showed in this part to reduce the outstanding disadvantages of nursing home
First of all, it is very important to have a suitable cost for old people who live
or plan to live in nursing home.
Secondly, loss of independence of old people is also a demerit of living in
nursing home of old people
Thirdly, Old people sometime feel lonely because of living far from their close
relationships.
Fourthly, Old people also have to deal with other residents and lost the private
life.
RECOMMMENDATION
Expenses: If nursing homes belong to government, government should have a
suitable expense for people plan to live in nursing home, should base on people
average income. If private members own nursing home, government need to
control the level of price which is decided by private companies, furthermore a
price should be given to owners of nursing homes and announced to community.
The independence: the loss of independence makes old people get sadder
and more sorrow. This is reason why their health become weaker and weaker, the
age is quick to come to them.

Nursing home should hold the trip days for old

people to go out. Example besides some activities inside nursing home, old
people also should take to other place such as museums, green park or some
places which are good for old people’s health.

Close relationships: This is a hard problem to solve. The responsibilities
should be handled by old people’s children, grandchildren or their families.
Although adults take their old people to nursing home, they still spend time
visiting their old people or elder parents. . The time to visit is up to old people
families, however, it is good to visit at least twice times a month. The life of old
people in nursing may be enough material, but they are lack of mind. The thing
they need is that they are visited and asked about life by their families. They
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would like to talked with their grandparent, play with them and live with them.
Hence do not let old people have to live alone in nursing home, and die in
loneliness. It is not in the hand of the government or the nursing house managers.
Dealing with other residents: The owner needs to notice to this problem.
Some old people do not like noises whereas they like quiet. There should be
appropriate arrangements among old people in nursing home. Nursing home had
better arrange some nurse to take care old people who would rather live in quiet
life than delighted life. Nurse had better help kind of old people integrate with
general life in nursing home.

CONCLUSION
When everything has been discussed above, a conclusion can be drawn that
although students today agree with the necessity of nursing home, they still said
that they do not want to take their old people or old parents to nursing home.
They would like to live with parents, or grandparents and take care for them, even
students are rich or poor.
Nursing homes are good, but old people always would love to live near their
families, near their children and grandchildren. They agree to go to nursing home

do not mean that they like living in nursing home.
In Vietnam, the concept of nursing home is not still popular, and in fact this is
not good and suitable in the thought of Vietnamese . However, if nursing homes
in one day are popular, and people accept it, people had better built nursing home
with cozy life in there and make old people have a life inside nursing home better
tan outside and make them feel nursing home be similar to their home.

References/Bibliography
Unknown, Literature review, retrieved from
• />25