Advances in healthcare have produced a rapid increase in the number of families that are providing care for frail, older relatives in the home. This phenomenon has presented multiple socio-political challenges for individuals, families, local communities, and nations, and as such has been the subject of multidisciplinary research. It is known that the family caregiving role for frail, older relatives is demanding, complex, most often assumed by a woman, and frequently associated with negative health effects on the caregiver. It is also clear that the family caregiver is a major national economic resource in providing care for the elderly. There is a need to understand the lived experience of the caregiver so that meaningful, appropriate preparation and interventions might be implemented to support the caregiver.
This purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand and describe the lived experience of family caregiving for frail older relatives in the home from a female perspective. The study design is based on principles of naturalistic inquiry and van Manen's (1990) hermeneutic phenomenological approach to human science research. Caregiver perspectives provided data for phenomenologic reflection and were elicited from: (a) fourteen interviews with seven experienced women caregivers averaging three hours each, (b) review of three videotapes that presented five different caregiver stories, (c) review of seven poems about caregiving authored by recognized women poets, and (d) etymological study of the words "care" and "give".
Thematic analysis of caregiver descriptions of the lived experience of caregiving revealed six essential themes: (a) staying with, (b) answering, (c) uncertainty, (d) adapting, (e) controlling, and (f) vulnerability. Implications of study findings are discussed as giving direction to nursing research, practice, and education.
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