Abstract

The purpose of this qualitative pilot study was to describe adult children's perceptions of critical caregiving conversations between themselves and their aging parents; barriers to these conversations; factors that facilitate these conversations; and the support from health care providers that adult children believe would help facilitate critical caregiving conversations between themselves and their aging parents. The overall purpose was to increase understanding of family communication processes that promote health as families age. Focus group interviews using a semi-structured interview guide were conducted with 16 adult children with caregiving experience of their aging parents. Data analysis was conducted utilizing Leininger's phases of Ethnonursing analysis and facilitated by use of QSR NVivo software for qualitative data analysis. Three themes emerged from the data: (1) navigation of caregiving in aging families, (2) negotiation of caregiving in aging families, and (3) coordination of caregiving in aging families. Study findings indicate the need to engage families and communities together as they navigate, negotiate, and coordinate caregiving conversations with aging adults. The findings of this study can be used for further nursing research on factors that influence family caregiving communication, and help nurses more effectively target communication interventions within the wider community.

Advisor

Sandra Eggenberger

Committee Member

Diane Witt

Date of Degree

2012

Language

english

Document Type

Thesis

Degree

Master of Science in Nursing (MSN)

Department

School of Nursing

College

Allied Health and Nursing

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

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In Copyright