Home care as a complex experience: a chronological case study

This case study of an older woman with macular degeneration describes her experience of dispensing daily medications over a 3-year period, during which a home care nurse began and continued visits. Using a phenomenological method, I analyzed data of 9 interviews, discerning the structure of her experience and depicting it in 7 diagrams. The home care experience can have unintended outcomes influenced by family and provider perceptions of clients' abilities, especially when family members and practitioners assume tasks that older women have managed alone. Minimizing intergenerational ambivalence about the need for home care and maximizing client agency should be preeminent foci of home care providers.