EXPLORATION AND DESCRIPTION OF CARING FOR SELF AND OTHERS WITH SECOND GENERATION POLISH AMERICAN ELDERS (ETHNOGRAPHY).

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to describe the meaning of caring from the perspective of community-dwelling individuals 65 years and older, who claim a Polish American ethnic identity. As background and preparation for the study the researcher spent 2 years in the Polish American community from which the key informants were chosen, explored the concept of caring cross culturally in the Human Relations Area Files, and spent a summer in Poland--the country of origin for the second generation sample. These experiences revealed that the care expectations by one group of people who are elderly and identify themselves as Polish American are unknown. Interviews were used to collect data from 7 informants. Participation, observation and written resources within the ethnic community supplemented the interview process. Tape recorded interviews were transcribed; field notes were compiled. All written data were analyzed, organized into categories and validated by the informants. Ten categories represented the Polish American elder's view of caring: kinds of Polish symbols, kinds of greeting, kinds of acknowledgment, kinds of caring, places for Polish people to meet, reasons for joining the Arizona Polish Club, reasons for going to the Arizona Polish Club, reasons for giving acknowledgment, care expectations: characteristics of a caring nurse, and ways to express caring. A primitive view of a 3-staged model was developed for generating universal conceptualizations of care from the Polish American elder's view of caring. Relationships among the categories were inferred from the data by the researcher and discussed as themes. Themes included: Arizona Polish Club as a caring place, being with my own kind, togetherness, neighboring, get moving in the morning, being there, taking time out, and having heart. The themes were discussed in relation to the research questions and the concept of caring that guided the study. This study revealed some of the characteristics, attributes, and conditions of caring that will be useful in expanding nursing's definition of caring, devising psychometric instruments to measure caring, and developing a cross cultural, cross age taxonomy of caring. Recommendations for nursing included care and research strategies with elders and suggestions for future study.