Older women caring for spouses with Alzheimer's disease at home: making sense of the situation.
I combined phenomenological and feminist approaches to capture older women's own description of their Alzheimer's disease (AD) caregiving experience. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 14 women who were 60 or older and cared at home for their spouses diagnosed with AD. Data were analyzed using a modified version of Colaizzi's method. Five major themes were found to define the fundamental structure of these women's experience. Here I address only findings pertaining to the fourth theme: making sense of the situation. These findings reveal aspects unique to older women's/wives' AD caregiving experience.
Paun
Olimpia
O
Rush University College of Nursing, Chicago, Illinois, USA. olimpia-paun@rush.edu
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000368:Aged / Q000523:psychology*; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000451:nursing*; D001294:Attitude to Health; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D002755:Choice Behavior; D004645:Empathy; D005260:Female; D006701:Home Nursing / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008393:Marriage / Q000523:psychology; D008875:Middle Aged; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D010684:Philosophy; D012945:Social Values; D018454:Spouses / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014930:Women / Q000523:psychology*