Empowerment in Primary Health Care: The Challenge for Nurses

Abstract

The experience of families of children with persistent middle ear problems supports the notion that when families become empowered, they manage their own health more effectively. Findings from the present study indicate that families engage in predictable processes of acquiescing, helpless floundering, and becoming experts in their efforts at learning to manage the course of their child's disease symptoms within the context of an often cavalier health care system. Questions are raised about the nature of empowerment and the changing role of the nurse.