Ward D H, Carney P A
Holist Nurs Pract. 1994 Jul;8(4):44-58. doi: 10.1097/00004650-199407000-00007.
Long-term care in the unique US welfare state is largely a private responsibility, and current long-term care policy rests on the assumption that care--of the elderly, in our example--will be provided by women. Because alternatives to personal care of dependent kin are available based on ability to pay, lower-income women bear a disproportionate burden. A study was undertaken to examine the experience of caregiving in a convenience sample of 10 low-income women providing informal care to a frail elder. Half the study sample were women of color. Responses to the core question, "What is taking care of ... like for you?" were analyzed using phenomenologic analysis techniques. A pattern of four interrelated key themes, which describe a transitional process beginning with inevitability of the caregiving role and ending with acquiescence to it, were identified. These data are placed in the political context that surrounds caregiving; such analyses are important both to generate theory and to identify possible points of intervention.
在独特的美国福利体系中，长期护理很大程度上是个人的责任，当前的长期护理政策基于这样一种假设：以我们的例子来说，对老年人的护理将由女性来提供。由于基于支付能力可以获得替代对亲属的个人护理的方式，低收入女性承担了不成比例的负担。一项研究对10名向体弱老人提供非正式护理的低收入女性的便利样本的护理经历进行了调查。研究样本中有一半是有色人种女性。使用现象学分析技术对核心问题“照顾……对你来说是什么样的？”的回答进行了分析。确定了四个相互关联的关键主题模式，这些主题描述了一个从护理角色的不可避免性开始到对其默认结束的过渡过程。这些数据置于围绕护理的政治背景中；这样的分析对于生成理论和确定可能的干预点都很重要。
