Conceptions of Community Health Nurses Regarding Low-Income Black, Mexican American, and White Families: Part 1

Abstract

Community health nurses' concepts of low-income black, Mexican American, and white family life styles; cultural systems of health beliefs and attitudes; and patterns of seeking health care were explored in a field study conducted with a public, voluntary visiting nurse service in Denver, Colorado. Participant-observation methods were used to collect data. Five family life-style patterns emerged from qualitative analysis of data. These patterns were found to be congruent with stereotypes found in the sociological literature. A majority of informants reported that ethnicity made a difference in their ability to help patients. Certain problems encountered in delivering nursing care to patients were common to all three ethnic classes, whereas other problems were unique to one ethnic group. The findings from this study, which cannot be generalized, stimulated development of a questionnaire used in a subsequent descriptive survey of community health nurses.