Living with Uncertainty: Older Persons' Lived Experience of Making Independent Decisions over Time

The aim of the study was to illuminate the meaning of older persons' independent decision making concerning their daily care. Autonomy when in care is highly valued in the western world. However, research shows that autonomy can give rise to problematic issues. The complexity of independence an...

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Autores principales: Breitholtz, Agneta, Snellman, Ingrid, Fagerberg, Ingegerd
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Hindawi Publishing Corporation 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3606765/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23533743
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/403717
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author Breitholtz, Agneta
Snellman, Ingrid
Fagerberg, Ingegerd
author_facet Breitholtz, Agneta
Snellman, Ingrid
Fagerberg, Ingegerd
author_sort Breitholtz, Agneta
collection PubMed
description The aim of the study was to illuminate the meaning of older persons' independent decision making concerning their daily care. Autonomy when in care is highly valued in the western world. However, research shows that autonomy can give rise to problematic issues. The complexity of independence and dependence for older people when living at home with help has also been highlighted. In Sweden, older people are increasingly expected to live at home with help from municipal home care services, and study into this aspect of care is limited. This study is a part of an ongoing project and has a qualitative life world perspective. Audiotaped narrative interviews were conducted and analysed using a phenomenological hermeneutic method. Findings revealed a main theme: “living with uncertainty as to how to relate one's own independence and dependence with regard to oneself, and others.” This involves a constant process of relating to one's independence controlled by others or oneself, and adjusting one's independence and dependence with regard to oneself and others. The conclusion is that professional carers need to acknowledge the changing vulnerability of dependent older persons over time. The implication is a relational approach to autonomy beyond the traditional individualistic approach.
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spelling pubmed-36067652013-03-26 Living with Uncertainty: Older Persons' Lived Experience of Making Independent Decisions over Time Breitholtz, Agneta Snellman, Ingrid Fagerberg, Ingegerd Nurs Res Pract Research Article The aim of the study was to illuminate the meaning of older persons' independent decision making concerning their daily care. Autonomy when in care is highly valued in the western world. However, research shows that autonomy can give rise to problematic issues. The complexity of independence and dependence for older people when living at home with help has also been highlighted. In Sweden, older people are increasingly expected to live at home with help from municipal home care services, and study into this aspect of care is limited. This study is a part of an ongoing project and has a qualitative life world perspective. Audiotaped narrative interviews were conducted and analysed using a phenomenological hermeneutic method. Findings revealed a main theme: “living with uncertainty as to how to relate one's own independence and dependence with regard to oneself, and others.” This involves a constant process of relating to one's independence controlled by others or oneself, and adjusting one's independence and dependence with regard to oneself and others. The conclusion is that professional carers need to acknowledge the changing vulnerability of dependent older persons over time. The implication is a relational approach to autonomy beyond the traditional individualistic approach. Hindawi Publishing Corporation 2013 2013-03-07 /pmc/articles/PMC3606765/ /pubmed/23533743 http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/403717 Text en Copyright © 2013 Agneta Breitholtz et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Breitholtz, Agneta
Snellman, Ingrid
Fagerberg, Ingegerd
Living with Uncertainty: Older Persons' Lived Experience of Making Independent Decisions over Time
title Living with Uncertainty: Older Persons' Lived Experience of Making Independent Decisions over Time
title_full Living with Uncertainty: Older Persons' Lived Experience of Making Independent Decisions over Time
title_fullStr Living with Uncertainty: Older Persons' Lived Experience of Making Independent Decisions over Time
title_full_unstemmed Living with Uncertainty: Older Persons' Lived Experience of Making Independent Decisions over Time
title_short Living with Uncertainty: Older Persons' Lived Experience of Making Independent Decisions over Time
title_sort living with uncertainty: older persons' lived experience of making independent decisions over time
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3606765/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23533743
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/403717
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