Aim: The overall aim of this thesis is to deepen the understanding of caring relationships in homecare for older adults by exploring the lived experiences of older adults and homecare nurses. 

Approach and method: The first study was a meta-ethnography aimed at identifying and synthesising qualitative studies focusing on older adults’ and homecare nurses’ interpretations of competence in homecare. Drawing on this study, the remaining three studies describe experiences and dimensions of caring relationships in homecare for older adults using a reflective lifeworld research approach. Study II describes the essential meaning of caring relationships based on the lived experiences of homecare nurses in Denmark, including 10 lifeworld interviews analysed using a phenomenological life-world analysis. Study III describes the essential meaning of caring relationships from the perspectives of older adults in Denmark, based on 10 lifeworld interviews; these are analysed using phenomenological lifeworld analysis. Building on the findings from Study III and Jarling et al., 2018, Study IV seeks to describe the existential dimensions of caring relationships in homecare for older adults in Denmark and Sweden. This resulted in the development of a general structure, which was further enriched through a philosophical examination. 

Main results: Collectively, the different experiences and dimensions of the phenomenon of the caring relationship in homecare are shaped by the physical caregiving meetings and the existential and embodied space that is ‘the home’. This intertwinement highlights the profound ethical and existential aspects that so closely link the notion of the home to the caring relationships that occur within it, by linking the relational aspects of being cared for in one’s own home with the experience of relationships that originate from what is culturally and traditionally experienced within the home. Across the studies (I–IV), the findings uncover the essential meanings of caring relationship in homecare, revealing the deeply embedded nature of caring as a question of existential value; namely of freedom and at-homeness.