Public Health Nurses' Experiences of Public Health Services for the Aged

Kim, Jeong Soo

Abstract

PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to describe public health services for the aged in public health centers from the perspective of public health nurses. METHODS: The interview data were collected from 11 public health nurses and analyzed by using Colazzi's (1978) descriptive phenomenology. The procedural steps was that described the phenomenon of interest, collected participants' descriptions of the phenomenon, extracted the meaning of significant statement, organized the meanings into theme clusters, wrote exhaustive descriptions and then incorporated data into an exhaustive description. RESULTS: The results included 291 re-statements, 49 constructed meanings, 27 themes, 12 theme clusters, and 5 categories were deduced. The five categories were 'perception of obstacles for elderly health system', 'sense of burden in services of health', 'planning about diverse elderly health services', 'elderly clients-focused performance', and 'solidify community ground of elderly health services'. Despite obstacles, participants tried to diverse health services for elderly. CONCLUSION: This study has described public health nurses' experiences about public health services for the aged. These findings have important implication for the practice of public health services for the aged and must be considered to develop program for planning and practice of public health nurses for the aged.