背景：文獻顯示耳鳴大都集中在中老年患者，對其生理、心理、社會、和靈性層面皆造成嚴重的影響。目的：本研究目的是探討老人耳鳴患者的生活經驗。方法：研究者以Heidegger 現象學設計和立意取樣，於南部某區域教學醫院的耳鼻喉科門診進行收案，由醫院IRB委員會通過後，訪談10位老人耳鳴患者，運用Colaizzi（1978）七個步驟進行資料分析，及Lincoln和Guba（1985）的四個信賴價值度，確實性、可轉移性、可確證性、和可靠性，確保資料收集和分析的嚴謹度，資料分析至內容飽和階段才停止收案，期間從2011年1月1日至12月30日。結果：由10位老人耳鳴患者的生活經驗形成六個主題和23個次主題，6個主題分別為「深夜擾人的聲音」、「百感交集的症狀」、「自我解讀之病因」、「千辛萬苦地求醫治」、「無法治癒之調適」、「轉念至正負思維」。結論／實務應用：老人耳鳴患者的生活經驗偏重生理和心理層面，較忽略社會和靈性層面，在護理實務方面，筆者建議增加一般民眾對耳鳴知識的預防保健，可製作一些預防耳鳴的知識手冊。

Background: Most of the tinnitus patients were found in the middle-age and elderly population, seriously impacting patients’ physical, psychological, social, and spiritual status. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the living experiences of elderly tinnitus patients. Method: The investigator used Heidegger phenomenology design and purposive sampling to collect data in the ENT clinics of a southern regional and teaching hospital. This study was approved by the hospital IRB committee and the author interviewed 10 elderly tinnitus patients. Colaizzi's seven steps were applied into data analysis, along with four trustworthiness principles by Lincoln and Guba, including credibility, transferability, confirmability, and dependability to assure the robustness of data collection and analysis. Data collection was closed when the content of data analysis approached saturation from January 1 to December 30, 2011. Result: Six major and 23 minor themes were generated from the living experiences of ten elderly tinnitus patients. Six major themes included disturbing sound during midnight, mixed feelings of symptoms, self-interpretation of the causes of illness, seeking healing with hardships, adaptation of unhealed governance, transferred ideas to positive and negative thoughts. Conclusion/Implications for practice: The living experiences of ten elderly tinnitus patients were mainly on physical and psychological aspects. Social and spiritual aspects were less emphasized. It is suggested that in order to increase the knowledge of preventing tinnitus, an educational brochure can be created.