This inquiry explores the use of appreciation in caregiving of nursing home residents with dementia in Sweden. The data comprise video-recordings of staff–resident interaction in residential care settings where caregivers help residents with personal hygiene. High-grade valuations achieving commendation or a praise like ‘jättebra’ (‘great’) are routinely employed online, concurrently with the care activity, by the caregiver when the residents are invited to take on manual tasks on their own, like getting out of bed, washing, dressing, and tooth brushing. It is displayed that the main function of the appraisal is to prompt someone to do something, which is debated as an institutionally linked problem. These findings differ from previous inquiry on domiciliary care in Sweden and Denmark, which demonstrates that high-grade valuation terms phrased so as to achieve commendation are set apart for situations where the home helper’s institutional role as the senior citizen’s helping hand is minimised. It is asserted that a more sensitive assessment use and a higher awareness of the social norms regarding epistemic priority may be a step toward applying person-centeredness in residential care for older people.