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Thematic analysis of the experience of making a decision to place a family member with Alzheimer's disease in a special care unit ¶
Author(s) -
Butcher Howard Karl,
Holkup Patricia A.,
Park Myonghwa,
Maas Meridean
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
research in nursing and health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.836
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1098-240X
pISSN - 0160-6891
DOI - 10.1002/nur.10005
Subject(s) - sample (material) , thematic analysis , psychology , ethnic group , family caregivers , unit (ring theory) , family member , social psychology , nursing , qualitative research , medicine , family medicine , sociology , social science , chemistry , mathematics education , chromatography , anthropology
The purpose of this study was to provide an in‐depth description of the experience of making the decision to place a family member in a special care unit among a diverse sample of family caregivers. To achieve purposive maximum variation of the sample, the sample of 30 family caregivers was chosen from an original study of 256 family caregivers. The sample was randomly stratified according to ethnicity, gender, and relationship to the care receiver. Three independent researchers used Luborsky's method of thematic analysis to analyze the interviews. After mutual consensus, 1565 themes (descriptive statements) were identified and synthesized into 21 topics. The topics were then synthesized into four patterns describing the decision‐making experience: moving toward the unavoidable decision, struggling with the decision, seeking reassurance, and remaining connected. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Res Nurs Health 24:470–480, 2001