Role conflicts & coping strategies in caregiving. A symbolic interactionist view.
Institutional health care delivery is characterized by interdependency among caregivers and between caregivers and care receivers, which leads to role conflicts. This article examines role conflicts and coping strategies of health care aides who are faced with differing expectations of RNs and residents. Guided by a symbolic interactionist perspective, ethnographic data from 12 RNs, 15 health care aides, and 32 nursing home residents of Italian-Catholic and Anglo-Saxon descent in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, was gathered. Results showed that health care aides differed in how they handled role conflict and their elderly clients' concerns. Health care aides were more likely to reject conflicting role expectations from residents than from RNs.
Clarke
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Department of Sociology, Kent State University, Salem Campus, Salem, Ohio, USA.
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000884:Anthropology, Cultural; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001294:Attitude to Health; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D007587:Job Description; D008875:Middle Aged; D009728:Nursing Assistants / Q000523:psychology*; D009735:Nursing Homes; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D009740:Nursing Staff / Q000523:psychology*; D009864:Ontario; D012059:Rejection, Psychology; D012380:Role; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013561:Symbolism; D016526:Workload