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Nurses’ moral agency in negotiating parental participation in care
Author(s) -
O'Haire Sophie E,
Blackford Jeanine C
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
international journal of nursing practice
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.62
H-Index - 55
eISSN - 1440-172X
pISSN - 1322-7114
DOI - 10.1111/j.1440-172x.2005.00532.x
Subject(s) - grounded theory , moral agency , agency (philosophy) , negotiation , nursing , qualitative research , focus group , context (archaeology) , coping (psychology) , psychology , medicine , social psychology , sociology , psychiatry , social science , paleontology , anthropology , biology
The purpose of this study was to investigate the issues for nurses in facilitating parental participation in the care of the hospitalized child. A qualitative study informed by grounded theory was undertaken. Nine nurses were recruited from an acute, high‐dependency, 23‐bed paediatric cardiac/renal unit in Melbourne, Australia. Data collection involved individual semistructured interviews, hospital policies related to family‐centred care and a focus group interview. Constant comparative analysis was undertaken to develop an understanding of the data collected in the context of the nurses’ experiences and the environment in which they work. Moral agency was identified as the central phenomenon of the study. Causal conditions related to this included the child's best interests, disputes about care and nurses’ expectations. These causal conditions were seen to potentially lead to moral distress for the nurses. The coping mechanisms and strategies that affected moral agency have been identified.