Learning Objective #1: Recognize the gaps in knowledge concerning female partners of men with coronary heart disease after hospital discharge

Learning Objective #2: Identify the contribution that phenomenological research could make to the understanding of female partners of men with coronary heart disease after hospital discharge

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Background: Patients are discharged home with their partners after fewer hospital days for medically or surgically treated coronary heart disease (CHD) (Stewart, Davidson, Meade, Hirth, & Makrides, 2001) and only one-third of patients attend formalized cardiac rehabilitation programs (American Heart Association, 2004). Within the home, the partner becomes the informal caregiver to a patient with a chronic illness. Consistently over the last 30 years research findings have demonstrated that the wife experiences distress after her husband's discharge home from the hospital. The focus of much of the research has been on the wives as a means to their husbands' health. However, the context of the wives' caregiving is often missing from the research. Additionally, some research has interpreted the women's behavior using negative language and only married women have been included in the studies. Because much of the women's lives remain hidden, a hermeneutical phenomenological study, from a feminist perspective, would help to provide understanding of the lived experience of women living with men after CHD. Purpose: The purpose of the research study is to explore the lives of women living with men who have CHD after hospital discharge. Method: A phenomenological research approach will be used for the study. A convenience sample of approximately 15 women will be recruited and interviews will be conducted. Interview data will be audio-taped and transcribed verbatim. Analysis: The process of data analysis and interpretation will use the method described by Diekelmann (1990). A feminist lens of respect for participants and reflexivity will be utilized in data analysis. Implications: For support and educational interventions for women to be effective researchers are challenged to understand the lives of women after their partners are discharged home with CHD. It is therefore important to reveal the women's experience in all of its complexities.