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Parental coping with a child’s epilespy: a secondary analysis using the Canam Adaptive Task Framework

University of British Columbia

This qualitative study is a secondary analysis of an existing data set generated from a descriptive study of parents of children with epilepsy. The conceptual framework that provided a basis for this study was the Canam Adaptive Task Framework (ATF) and the purpose of this study was to apply the ATF to transcribed narrative data from a sample of parents to determine if the adaptive tasks effectively represented their experiences. The ATF is based on the premise that there is a series of eight adaptive tasks common to parents of children with chronic conditions, regardless of the child's specific medical condition. The ATF is an organizing structure that guides the nurse in not only identifying the common issues, but in determining the knowledge, skills, and resources required for the parent to cope. By determining the representativeness of the ATF with this condition-specific data set, the credibility of the ATF with parents of children with chronic conditions may be increased. In the current study, 12 families were randomly selected from the original, convenience sample of 20 families from the Seizure Clinic at BC's Children's Hospital. Data were analyzed using latent content analysis (Morse & Field, 1995) according to the appropriate adaptive task categories. Through the study, the author's findings demonstrate that the ATF provides the nurse with credible and practical direction to collaborate with parents in identifying the knowledge, skills, and resources needed by parents to cope effectively with their child's condition. More specifically, these parents had difficulty accessing adequate, useful information about their child's condition, developing effective working relationships with health care professionals, communicating with their children's teachers, and promoting normalization in their families' lives. A major conclusion indicates that by being representative of these parents' experiences, the ATF is considered to be effective in identifying the difficulties and strengths of parents of children with epilepsy and in facilitating the acquisition of their coping strategies. Implications for nursing practice, education, and research are presented.

Thesis/Dissertation

application/pdf

2009-05-04

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/7828

Nursing

University of British Columbia

UBCV

DSpace