Poster Presentation
Wednesday, 19 July 2006
9:30 AM - 10:00 AM
Wednesday, 19 July 2006
2:30 PM - 3:00 PM
Women with Cardiac Symptoms Seeking Treatment in the Emergency Department: A Grounded Theory Study
Sheila A. Turris, RN, BHSc, MSN, School of Health Sciences, British Columbia Institute of Technology, Burnaby, BC, Canada
| Learning Objective #1: Explain the consequences of treatment seeking delay, in the setting of cardiac symptoms and emergency departments. |
| Learning Objective #2: Critically examine issues unique to a population of women seeking treatment for signs and symptoms of cardiac illness, in an ED setting. |
Cardiac disease is the number one killer of North American women. We know that female gender and cardiac disease intersect. Further, we know that women and men have differing experiences within the health care system. Although Emergency Departments (ED) are a point of first contact for women with signs and symptoms suggestive of cardiac illness, this setting has seldom been studied. In particular, little attention has been directed toward understanding the experiences of women seeking treatment in EDs. Experiences of ED care may be an important determinant of the duration of treatment seeking delay in the context of symptoms indicative of cardiac illness.
In this grounded theory study, I collected data from more than 100 hours of participant observation and 20, semi-structured interviews with a convenience sample of women who sought care for cardiac symptoms in one of 2 urban EDs between June of 2005 and June of 2006. The results of this study are reported in this poster presentation. The emerging findings suggest that decision making about treatment seeking is a complex phenomenon that involves a plethora of small decisions, rather than a single decision point. As well, data reveal that these decisions are to some extent gendered. One particularly interesting finding of this study is that participants made decisions about seeking treatment not based solely on an assessment of symptoms or possible outcomes, but on the meaning of those symptoms within the larger context of their lives. Women making decisions about seeking treatment respond to symptoms using a variety of lens including rational, relational, temporal and embodied. Finally, the emerging findings confirm that women have particular ideas about what constitutes quality care in the ED.
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