Beschreibung:
<jats:sec><jats:title>Background</jats:title><jats:p>Respect is fundamental to ethical nursing practice. However, respect in the care of older people is seldom investigated from the perspective of patients and their next of kin.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Aim</jats:title><jats:p>To describe the manifestation of respect in the care of older patients in long‐term care settings from the perspective of older patients with memory disorders and their next of kin.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Design and methods</jats:title><jats:p>A narrative inquiry on research methodology using open interviews was employed. Transcribed interviews were analysed using inductive content analysis, and from this analysis a typology was produced.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Settings</jats:title><jats:p>The study settings were patients' own homes supported by professional home care, and nursing homes in three cities in southern Finland.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Participants</jats:title><jats:p>A purposeful sample (N = 40) of participants (older patient, n = 20 and their next of kin, n = 20) was recruited. Half of the older patient lived at home where they received professional care and the other half lived in nursing homes.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results</jats:title><jats:p>Respect in long‐term care settings is manifested in patient care through the being and doing of the nurse. A typology of nurses' being and doing described three ways nurses manifested respect: ‘I'm here for you’, ‘I'm here for work’ and ‘I'm not here for you’. Patient's responses to the typology were as follows: sharing, exploring and withdrawing, respectively.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusions</jats:title><jats:p>The analysis and typology of nurses' being and doing increases the understanding of respect in patient care in long‐term care settings. Furthermore, this knowledge of respect will make it possible to develop measureable respect indices for use in the evaluation of care.</jats:p></jats:sec>