Protective care-receiving: the active role of care-recipients (original) (raw)

1997, Journal of Advanced Nursing

Protective care-receiving: the active role of care-recipients Historical and contemporary conceptualizations of caregiving have not addressed the active role of care recipients within caregiver-care-recipient relationships. Using an interpretive synthesis method, the authors developed the concept of protective care-receiving from three qualitative studies of different groups of care receivers (older adults with chronic illnesses, persons with AIDS, and persons in treatment for active cancer]. This paper descrihes the focus of care recipients' protective care-receiving efforts, the goals they hoped to achieve, and the strategies they used to assist themselves in attaining their goals. Examples of their efforts and strategies are illustrated with quotations from the data. These findings extend what is known ahout care recipients' selfcare activities. Moreover, the findings reveal a new dimension in the role of care recipients-protective care given hy care recipients to their professional care providers, family and friend caregivers, and other care recipients. The concept of protective care-receiving advances our understanding of caregiving relationships and presents researchers with the opportunity to investigate the complex encounter hetween caregiver and care recipient. Recognizing and facilitating care recipients' protective care-receiving is an ethical imperative for a 'caring' profession such as nursing. NURSING THEORISTS' GOAL include the concept of caregiving as actions wbich occur primarily witbin tbe context of tbe caregiver-patient Witb few exceptions (i.e. Leininger 1984, Watson 1985, encoimter (Eriksson 1994, George 1995). Regardless of Orem 1991), nursing theorists bave focused on nursing tbeir tbeoretical approacb to nursing (for example, needs, care and family/friend-provided care as actions done to interaction, or outcome theorists), nursiag tbeorists' preor for one person by anotber. Tbeoretical descriptions dominant goal bas been to describe, expledn or predict care as provided to care recipients (CRs).