Concept of Care, Caring Expectations, and Caring Frustrations of the Elderly Suffering from Chronic Illness

Abstract

While it is true that elderly concepts of care and caring expectations have been ascertained in previous literatures, little is known about how the elderly population views caring frustrations—particularly that of the Filipino elderly. This study purports to surface the lebenswelt of healthcare expectations and frustrations based on the repondents’ concept of care. A three-part instrument consisting of robotfoto, picture prompts, and unstructured interviews was used to elicit pertinent data. Through the use of dendrogram, field texts were phenomenologically reduced to emerge conceptual clusters. On the whole, this study yielded interesting conceptualizations which include the Clock of Care, the Clock of Caring Expectations and the Clock of Caring Frustrations. The emerged meanings in this study create a picture of care as a driving force in the progression of care expectations and frustrations. This eidetic background enables healthcare providers to offer care that is both timely and relevant to their client's subjective illness experience.