It is an ethnographic study which aims to interpret the meaning attributed by the elderly to the experience at a Long Stay Institution for the Elderly, in the municipality of Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil. The information was collected by participant observation and ethnographic interviews, between January and August 2010, at a private and for-profit institution, and it was analyzed in domains, taxonomies and cultural theme. The key informants were elderly residents chosen by criteria of inclusion. Cultural domains that emerged were: reasons that led to live in the institution; ways of living; daily activities; activities promoted by the institution; feelings attributed to the experience; institution attributes; residents attributes and the cultural theme: in search of the nectar of life. This experience meant to the elderly the possibility of being cared, broadly understood as maintenance of life and well-being optimization, and also implying in actions of nursing care.
Aged; Homes for the aged; Research; Nursing; Anthropology, cultural