The term ‘Person centred care’ is used widely in health and social care discourse and is commonly employed in the articulation of policy, both at governmental and professional level. The concept, as it relates to older people in residential care, challenges traditional medical and task-orientated processes and promotes a shift in emphasis to holistic, collaborative, relationship-based care environments. While person centred care has become a watchword for good quality of care and quality of life, problems have been reported in relation to its implementation and sustainability.\ud
There is a lack of research on the social relations that influence the experience of person centred care. Institutional ethnography was chosen to explore the everyday living routines of older people in residential care and the organisational practices that influence those routines in three public residential care facilities in the Republic of Ireland. The study was divided into two phases.\ud
The first phase of the study explored the everyday life of these residential settings and the implementation of person centred care. This involved interviews with 12 residents, 10 relatives, 13 frontline staff and 11 managers. Observations of the daily routines in non-intimate settings were also undertaken.\ud
The second phase connected the everyday life of the resident to the organisational structures of professional practice, human resource management and regulation. Mapping the social relations that influence the everyday lives of residents allowed the disjuncture between the espoused principles of person centred care and the organisational policies and practices to be explored