MEDICAL FOSTER CARE: AN ETHNOGRAPHY (SOCIAL WORK, CHILD ABUSE, NEGLECT).
Contributors: University of Florida.
Published: 1984
Number of pages: 146
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: The purpose of this ethnographic study was to ascertain what is involved in the process of medical foster parenting from the foster parents' perception. The study described the stages that medical foster families go through as they define roles, build relationships and disengage themselves from children who are returned to biological families or regular foster care placement.

The research took place in a southeastern urban area where medical foster care was developed to prevent boarding of abused and neglected children in hospitals when biological families are unable to give safe care and no suitable alternative placements are available. The sample consisted of eight nurses and their spouses who were licensed as medical foster families for abused and neglected children with severe health problems. Ethnographic data were collected through participant observation and in-depth interviewing of medical foster parents.

Themes of behaviors, feelings and needs emerged as medical foster parents interacted with biological parents to provide medical treatment, role modeling, parent education and advocacy. Medical foster families were motivated by pragmatic, noble and religious intentions, but their initial reaction was characterized by feelings of disquiet, guilt and isolation. Routinization of medical care was a prerequisite for attending to psychosocial needs of children and biological parents. Medical foster parents faced the reality of biological families as they prepared for children to be returned to their homes. The informants went through stages of detachment from foster children but in the process experienced dissonance and existential contradictions. The medical foster parents reported unanticipated stresses associated with lack of professional recognition, contradictions in the bureaucratic systems and conflicts with biological parents. Measures to enhance coping strategies, support systems and rewards of the medical foster care experience were described.

As applied research, the study has implications for nursing education, community health practice, medical foster parent training, social service agencies and for other professionals who work with medical foster families.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 45-09, Section: B, page: 2869.

Thesis (ED.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA, 1984.

School code: 0070.