The Modifiability of Grounded Theory
Main Article Content
Abstract
Grounded theories are powerful tools that fit empirical situations and provide “relevant predictions, explanations, interpretations, and applications” (Glaser & Strauss, 1967, p.1). Because of their real-world orientation, grounded theories are particularly appropriate for health care research. They can help professionals understand that certain patterns always seem to emerge, that particular people respond in predictable ways, and that actions produce predictable results (Nathaniel & Andrews, 2007). When physicians and nurses better understand patterns that affect patients, they can work towards altering harmful patterns to improve the quality of patient care. As time passes, one may ask, when do grounded theories become obsolete? When are they no longer useful? The purpose of this paper is to revisit the seminal grounded theory, Awareness of Dying, and compare it to contemporary conceptual and descriptive research on end-of-life care, asking the question, is the theory in need of modification?
Downloads
Article Details
The Grounded Theory Review is an open access journal, which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the international Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) definition of open access.
References
Carline, J. D., Curtis, J. R., Wenrich, M. D., Shannon, S. E., Ambrozy, D. M., & Ramsey, P. G. (2003). Physicians' interactions with health care teams and systems in the care of dying patients: Perspectives of dying patients, family members, and health care professionals. Journal of Pain Symptom Management, 25 (1), 19-28. DelVecchio, M. J., Good, M., Gadmer, N., Ruopp, P., Lakoma, M.,
Sullivan, A., et al. (2004). Narrative nuances on good and bad deaths: Internists' tales from high-technology work places. Social Science and Medicine, 58 (5), 939-953.
Downey, L., Curtis, J., Lafferty, W., Herting, J., & Engleberg, R. (2010). The quality of dying and death questionnaire (QODD): Empirical domains and theoretical perspectives. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, 39 (1), 9-22.
Exley, C., Field, D., Jones, L., & Stokes, T. (2005). Palliative care in the community for cancer and end-stage cardiorespiratory disease: The views of patients, lay-carers and health care professionals. Palliative Medicine, 19 (1), 76-83.
Field, D. (1996). Awareness and modern dying. Mortality, 1 (3), 255-265.
Field, D., & Copp, G. (1999). Communication and awareness about dying in the 1990s. Pal liative Medicine, 13 (6), 459-468.
Flory, J., Young-Xu, Y., Gurol, I., Levinsky, N., Ash, A.,& Emanuel, E. (2004). Place of death: U.S. trends since 1980. Health Affairs, 23 (3), 194-200.
Francke, A. L., & Willems, D. L. (2005). Terminal patients' awareness of impending death: The impact upon requesting adequate care. Cancer Nursing, 28 (3), 241-247.
Glaser, B. G. (1978). Theoretical sensitivity: Advances in the methodology of grounded theory. Mill Valley, CA: Sociology Press.
Glaser, B. G. (2002). Conceptualization: On theory and theorizing using grounded theory. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 1 (2), 1-31.
Glaser, B. G. (2002, rev. 2007). Constructivist grounded theory. [Online Journal]. Forum Qualitative Social Research, 3 (3).
Glaser, B. G. (2007). Doing formal grounded theory: A proposal . Mill Valley, CA: Sociology Press.
Glaser, B. G., & Strauss, A. L. (1964). The Social Loss of Dying Patients. American Journal of Nursing, 64, 119-121.
Glaser, B. G., & Strauss, A. L. (1965a). Awareness of dying. Chicago, IL: Aldine Publishing.
Glaser, B. G., & Strauss, A. L. (1965b). Temporal Aspects of Dying as a Non-Scheduled Status Passage. American Journal of Sociology, 71, 48-59.
Glaser, B. G., & Strauss, A. L. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. Chicago, IL: Aldine Publishing.
Glaser, B. G., & Strauss, A. L. (1968). Time for dying. Chicago, IL: Aldine Publishing.
Glaser, B. G., & Tarozzi, M. (2007). Forty years after Discovery: Grounded theory worldwide. The Grounded Theory Review: An International Journal, Special Issue, 21-41.
Hinton, J. (1996). How reliable are relatives' retrospective reports of terminal illness? Patients and relatives' accounts compared. Social Science and Medicine, 43 (8), 1229-1236.
Hopkinson, J. B., Hallett, C. E., & Luker, K. A. (2005). Everyday death: How do nurses cope with caring for dying people in hospital? International Journal of Nursing Studies, 42 (2), 125-133.
Lamont, E. B., & Christakis, N. A. (2001). Prognostic disclosure to patients with cancer near the end of life. Annals of Internal Medicine, 134 (12), 1096-1105.
Mularski, R., Curtis, J. R., Osborne, M., Engelberg, R. A., & Ganzini, L. (2004). Agreement among family members in their assessment of the quality of dying and death. Journal of Pain Symptom Management, 28 (4), 306-315.
Nathaniel, A. K., & Andrews, T. (2007). How grounded theory can improve nursing care quality. Journal of Nursing Care Quality, 22 (4), 350-357.
Quinlan, C., & O'Neill, C. (2009). Practitioners' perspectives on patient autonomy at the end of life . Dublin: Irish Hospice Foundation.
Quint, J. C. (1967). The nurse and the dying patient. New York, NY: Macmillan.
Rabow, W., Hardie, G., Fair, J., & McPhee, S. (2000). End-of-life care content in 50 textbooks from multiple specialties. Journal of the American Medical Association, 283 , 771-778.
Ryan, P. Y. (2005). Approaching death: A phenomenologic study of five older adults with advanced cancer. Oncology Nursing Forum, 32 (6), 1101-1108.
Seale, C., Addington-Hall, J., & McCarthy, M. (1997). Awareness of dying: Prevalence, causes and consequences. Social Science and Medicine, 45 (3), 477-484.
The, A. M., Hak, T., Koeter, G., & van Der Wal, G. (2000). Collusion in doctor-patient communication about imminent death: An ethnographic study. British Medical Journal, 321 , 1376-1381.
Yabroff, R., Mandelblatt, J., & Ingham, J. (2004). The quality of medical care at the end-of-life in the USA: Existing barriers and examples of process and outcome measures. Palliati ve Medicine, 18 , 202-216.