Home Nursing in Europe

Book excerpt: The increase in the number and life expectancy of elderly people is a general trend across Europe. Each country responds differently to the increased demands for elderly care, due to differences in their socio-cultural, political, and historical backgrounds. This book describes patterns of caregiving to frail, elderly people in Denmark, France, the Netherlands, and Germany. For each country, characteristic features of professional and informal elderly care are described, specifically focusing on home nursing. Differences in home nursing in these four countries are described from a broad sociological and cultural perspective. These are related to differences between health-care professions and health-care sectors, structures, and ways of financing of health-care systems, the role of the family in caregiving to elderly people, and norms and values regarding health and illness. This volume provides insight into country-specific patterns of provision of care for vulnerable elderly people.