Measurement of the Concept of “Care”
The first two steps are predetermined hence I would proceed to identify as many uses of the concept as possible from available literature, dictionaries, and through discussions with my colleagues. After identifying the various uses, I would identify and note the characteristics that appear repeatedly in the collated information. I would then list these defining attributes limiting my list to those most relevant to my study. Afterwards, I would construct a model case incorporating all the defining attributes of the concept of care as well as additional cases. The later cases would act as examples of what the concept of care is not whilst the model case would reflect what caring is. Based on the insights developed from the previous stages, I would embark on identifying the antecedents and consequences of “care.” Antecedents are the incidents, events, or activities that must occur prior to the happening of caring. Consequences of caring constitute the outcomes of caring. The antecedents and outcomes of caring are likely to be experienced by the recipients (patients) and providers (nurses) of care.
Having successfully navigated through the seven steps of the model, I would finally identify the empirical referents of the concept of care. Identification of empirical referents represents operationalization of the concept to make it measurable (Waltz, Strickland, & Lenz, 2010, p. 32). To ensure that I measure the concept of care in its entirety, I would select or develop an assessment tool that measures each of the critical/defining attributes identified in the previous steps. Previous concept analysis have revealed that “care” and “caring” are qualitative, highly abstract, and subjective concepts. These raises the possibility that even the critical attributes identified would be nebulous. In light of this, I would assess caring from the perspectives of nurses and patients in a narrative form. The tool developed or selected would constitute of open questions that would allow patients and nurses to describe the caring experience in their own words.
References
Cutcliffe, J. R. & McKenna, H. P. (2005). The essential concepts of nursing: Building blocks for practice. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier Science Inc.
Waltz, F. C., Strickland, O. L., & Lenz, E. R. (2010). Measurement in nursing and health research (4th ed.). Danvers, MA: Springer Publishing Company, LLC.
