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Quiet pride: the experience of chronic illness by rural older adults
1School of Nursing, Hawaii Pacific University, Kaneohe, HI, USA. renel@lava.net
Purposes:
To explore how chronic illness is experienced and managed by rural Hispanic and non-Hispanic older adults and their families, and to identify how the health care system and community facilitate or inhibit the ability to manage chronic illness in a changing health care environment.
Design:
Descriptive ethnography with purposive sampling.
Methods:
Data-generation methods included audiotaped interviews from 42 Hispanic and White, non-Hispanic participants, participant observations, examination of documents and artifacts, and photography in rural Colorado. Interpretive ethnographic methods were used to identify an overarching cultural theme.
Findings:
Living with chronic illness was a proactive, reciprocal learning process shaped by interrelationships in the context of multiple, diverse communities. Participants expressed living with chronic illness as a quiet pride on the journey toward living a meaningful life.
Conclusions:
Findings provide an understanding of the webs of relationships that constitute the experience of elders living with chronic illness in rural communities. Viewing life as meaningful in the context of a broader understanding of health and well-being is important for nursing practice and future models of care.