Finding a balance: toward a substantive theory of employed mothers' personal and family health decision making.

PURPOSE

We investigated how mothers employed in support staff positions make personal and family health decisions.

DESIGN

We used a critical feminist grounded theory design.

METHODS

Twenty women employed at a large Canadian institution participated over two years in repeat interactive interviews.

FINDINGS

"Finding a balance" was the emergent core process of health decision making in response to the basic social problem of multiple demands and uncoordinated, sometimes conflicting ideologies. Women emphasized recursive movement within a continuous process of four action phases: cueing in, figuring out, generating solutions, and assessing results. Two distinct views of finding a balance were revealed: weighing competing interests or harmonizing multiple interests. These distinctive views contributed to variation in women's approaches to decision making and to their personal and family health experiences.

CONCLUSIONS

Women's experiences suggest a capacity for reflective practice in health decision making that provides an excellent basis for holistic, emancipatory nursing practice.