A Case Study: The Nurse Researcher in the Home Setting

Abstract

The expansion of home health nursing over the past two decades has resulted in the increase of nursing research in home settings.. Many healthcare organizations have adopted a customer service approach in which the patient is viewed as a guest. The role of the nurse in the home care setting has also been described in the literature as guest. Other studies have reported that patients, as well as nurses, view nurses as a guest while care is being provided in the home setting. This potentially creates conflicting role expectations between the patient and the research nurse in home care settings. Ethics of care and ethics of justice are two divergent, yet complimentary, ethical frameworks that allow researchers to act appropriately to meet competing demands in the home setting. The purpose of this paper is to analyze a case study involving implementing research conducted in the home setting.