Resumen de Inner Strength as Identified in Narratives of Elderly Women: A Focus Group Interview Study

Erika Boman, Anette Haggblom, Berit Lundman, Björn Nygren, Regina Santamaki Fischer

• By identifying sources of inner strength, health care personnel can be given valuable information about elderly people's capacities regardless of frailty. The focus of this interview-based study was to explore how inner strength and its dimensions can be identified in narratives of elderly women. The analysis was based on a theoretical model where inner strength is composed of 4 interacting dimensions of connectedness, creativity, firmness, and flexibility. Our findings add nuance to the notion of inner strength and deepen empirical knowledge about the concept.