APPLICATION OF WANDA HORTA'S THEORY OF BASIC HUMAN NEEDS IN NURSING CARE FOR THE ELDERLY IN PRIMARY CARE
Elderly, Nursing Care, Nursing Process, Nursing Theory, Primary Health Care.
This study had to analyze the application of Wanda Horta Theory of Basic Human Needs in nursing care for the elderly in primary care. It was a descriptive study with a qualitative approach in the care-research method carried out with thirty elderly people aged 60 or over registered in the Professor Gilberto de Macedo Teaching Assistance Unit (UDA), located in the city of Maceió - AL. Information collect took place from August to October 2022, during nursing appointment following a semi-structured script. The analysis of the information was based on Wanda Horta TNHB presupositions, the theoretical reference adopted in this work. The results indicated a predominance of women, with a mean age of 72 years, who reported being illiterate, married, of the Protestant religion, with at least one child and residing, for the most part, with a family member. The identified psychobiological human needs were oxygenation; hydration; nutrition; elimination; sleep and rest; exercise and physical activities; sexuality; perception (olfactory, visual and auditory); locomotion/physical safety and neurological regulation/orientation in time and space. The highlighted psychosocial necessities were love and acceptance/emotional security/gregarious; leisure/recreation; self-realization/self-esteem/body care/self-image and freedom of participation/autonomy. Among the predominant psycho-spiritual necessities, religious expression predominated. From this, it was identified that the application of TNHB during the nursing appointment made it possible to carry out care for the elderly in a holistic and whole, based on their necessities, which demonstrates that this theoretical model set up as a possibility of reorientation of nursing care practice in elderly care in primary care.