CONCEPT OF "HELP" AS NURSES AND THEIR CLIENTS PERCEIVE IT.
Contributors: Case Western Reserve University.
Published: 1987
Number of pages: 188
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: The purpose of this investigation was to explore and describe nurses' and their clients' perceptions about help based on Brickman's four models of helping, the Moral, Enlightenment, Compensatory, and Medical Models.

A survey method was used for data collection. The study sample was comprised of twelve nurse-client dyads in each of four diverse health care settings: a Nurse-Midwifery Practice, a Substance Abuse Rehabilitation Unit, a Diabetic Recheck Clinic, and an Inpatient Acute Care Unit.

All subjects were asked to respond to the Rabinowitz Help Orientation Tests and Background Questionnaire. The tests, designed to serve as a basis for inferring attitudes about help, elicited information about respondents' perceptions of help. Four open-ended questions on the Background Questionnaire explored perceptions of the problem, cause, solution, and expected outcome.

Findings of this research indicated that nurses' and their clients' general orientation to help was concurrent in the four health care settings of this study as measured by the Help Orientation Test I. Data based on the open-ended questions confirmed differences in perceptions about help among nurses and clients. The majority of nurses attributed responsibility for client problems to their disease while clients attributed responsibility for problems to the recipient of help. Both nurses and clients attributed responsibility for solutions to caregivers or care recipients, or a combination of both.

A significant finding of the study, based on mean response sums on the Help Orientation Tests, was that clients across all four settings least endorsed the Compensatory Model (p $<$.0001). In this model the help recipient takes responsibility for solutions, but not the cause of problems.

Both nurses and clients endorsed the Enlightenment Model (recipients are held responsible for the problem, but not for the solution) over the other three models when mean sums of responses were ranked. Within settings, however, nurses endorsed the Enlightenment Model in three of the four settings, while clients endorsed that same model in only two settings. The rank order of four models was concurrent among nurses and clients in the Substance Abuse Rehabilitation Unit. In less than half of the dyads there was concurrence of endorsement for the highest ranked model.

The refinement of the Brickman model of help and further exploration of the applicability of the model to nursing practice is recommended.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 48-06, Section: B, page: 1642.

Thesis (PH.D.)--CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY (HEALTH SCIENCES), 1987.

School code: 0499.