[Epidemiology without numbers: nurses tell their perception, and the management strategies, of the behavioral problems of the elderly].

OBJECTIVES: To assess the practicability of caring strategies which rely on the subjective resources and insights of nursing personnel in the management of behavioral problems of the elderly. METHODS: Following the indications of a training session, the nurses in charge of a residential geriatric department have been invited to express, through brief written accounts, their point of view on: 1. the definition(s) of behavioral problems; 2. the strategies adopted before or with or in the place of psychotropic drugs; 3. the experience gained from significative responses to non-pharmacological treatments. RESULTS: All the narratives by individual participants are reported to document, through the variability of their languages, concepts, interventions, the need as well as the possibilities of caring behaviors, where listening attitudes are practiced, thus allowing also a better awareness of original role opportunities. CONCLUSIONS: Narrative practices can usefully be incorporated into caring duties and contexts, and represent an important training tool, specifically relevant for the grey areas of medicine.