"Dr. Right": Elderly Women in Pursuit of Negotiated Health Care and Mutual Decision Making

Authors

Kevin Evans, Ohio State UniversityFollow
Suzanne Robertson, Ohio State University

Abstract

This study explores a group of elderly women who were searching for physicians that were interested in providing negotiated health care options with particular interest in mutual decision making. The grounded theory approach was used to explore the health care interactions between the physicians and the elderly women (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). Qualitative interviews were conducted with eleven women, 75 years and older. The categorical working title of "Looking for Dr. Right" helped to focus our discovery of the reasons for these women's search for a new physician. Grounded in the data, a proposed hypothesis was developed regarding the need for a two-way dialogue addressing specific health care concerns between an elderly woman and her physician.

Keywords

Grounded Theory, Elderly Women, Patient-Physician Interactions, Qualitative Research, and Mutuality

Acknowledgements

Both authors would like to acknowledge funding support provided by the Ohio State University College of Medicine and the School of Allied Medical Professions. The authors would also like to thank Christopher A. Taylor, PhD for his input and intellectual contributions in our quest to better understand our participants and their unique needs

Publication Date

9-1-2009

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.46743/2160-3715/2009.1402

Recommended APA Citation

Evans, K., & Robertson, S. (2009). "Dr. Right": Elderly Women in Pursuit of Negotiated Health Care and Mutual Decision Making. The Qualitative Report, 14(3), 409-432. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2009.1402