To illuminate the meaning of maintaining dignity from the perspective of older people living in nursing homes.
This qualitative study is based on individual interviews. Twenty-eight nursing home residents were included from six nursing homes in Scandinavia. A phenomenological-hermeneutic approach, inspired by Ricoeur was used to understand the meaning of the narrated text.
The meaning of maintaining dignity was constituted in a sense of vulnerability to the self, and elucidated in three major interrelated themes: Being involved as a human being, being involved as the person one is and strives to become, and being involved as an integrated member of the society.
The results reveal that maintaining dignity in nursing homes from the perspective of the residents can be explained as a kind of ongoing identity process based on opportunities to be involved, and confirmed in interaction with significant others.