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Learning Objective 1: Identify caring processes that families use to manage the health experience in the context of a chronic illness.
Learning Objective 2: Distribute knowledge of caring strategies that support the family experiencing a chronic illness.
Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative research study was to identify caring processes that support families experiencing a chronic illness.
Background: The significance of the research was to describe the caring processes that families use to manage the health experience, and to extend theory related to family reintegration in the context of chronic illness. Providing care for families must be done with attention to the unique complexities of families.
Methods: The research design for this descriptive qualitative study approach used grounded theory methodology with a focus on family social processes as it is rigorous and particularly helpful in knowledge development related to families. Interview transcripts and field note recordings of interviews with 9 families managing a chronic illness served as the data for the study. Forty-six participant family members ranging in age from 6 years to 75 years (mean age 34) were interviewed following approval of the study by the Institutional Review Board of the University. Chronic illness situations represented were HIV-AIDS, multiple sclerosis, Type I diabetes mellitus, ankylosing spondylitis, lymphoma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, congenital muscular dystrophy manifesting in pulmonary failure and chronic renal failure.
Results: Chronic illness is a family affair and family processes are affected when a family is managing a chronic illness. Intentional caring strategies that include planning, caring, and protecting have been found to assist families to create a pattern of engagement with the chronic illness.
Conclusions: Because so many families live with the uncertainties inherent in life within the context of chronic illness it behooves nurses and other healthcare providers to understand the antecedents as well as the strategies families use to cope with chronic illness. Uncertainty contains many unknowns and families manage these unknowns by developing intentional caring strategies to keep the chronic illness in place and care for family members.