Background: Despite global and local policy frameworks that explicitly aim to privilege participation and active engagement of older adults living in nursing homes, this group often has limited possibilities to engage in occupations and to have influence in their everyday lives.
Aim: To explore how older adults' engagement and influence in an occupation can emerge in everyday life in a nursing home setting.
Material and methods: A participatory qualitative approach was applied. Older adults living in a nursing home participated in a Book Club that was created collaboratively between researchers, residents, and the nursing home community.
Findings: The analysis identified qualities of altering the boundaries of everyday life and addressing the uncertain conditions for influence and engagement as processes actualized by the residents when engaging in the Book Club. Further analysis identified how these processes involved ordinariness, familiarity, fellowship, and connectedness.
Conclusion and significance: Engagement and influence in occupation in a nursing home is possible when enabling partnerships and resourcefulness among the residents. However, such enablement is not guaranteed and needs to be actively upheld by the nursing home community in order to build practices aligned with policy frameworks of participation.
Keywords: hermeneutic analysis; older adults; participatory methods; persons with dementia; residential care facilities; third space.