Page 72 - Encyclopedia of Nursing Research

CASE STUDY AS A METHoD oF RESEARCH n 39

(d) nyberg’s Caring Attribute Scale to mea- trials to test the effectiveness of caring-based
sure caring attributes, and (e) Coates’ Caring therapeutics in promotion of health and well-
Efficacy Scale to measure the belief in the being. Different designs and methods must C
ability to express a caring orientation and to be used to capture the emerging questions
develop caring relationships. in the field. Multiple ways of knowing from
The future of research in caring is prom- empirics to aesthetics are required to explore
ising. An international community of schol- all dimensions of caring phenomena. A
ars is actively building knowledge in caring model of research that integrates these mul-
science. The International Association for tiple perspectives and ways of knowing may
Human Caring meets annually to disseminate be the preferred epistemological model for
the work of its members, and the International studying caring (Quinn, Smith, Ritenbaugh,
Journal in Human Caring publishes research Swanson, & Watson, 2003).
and scholarship that expands caring science.
The Watson Caring Science Institute and the Marlaine C. Smith with contributions
Anne Boykin Institute for the Advancement from Sally Phillips (volume 1)
of Caring in nursing have been established
to support the scholarly development, dis-
semination, and application of knowledge
related to caring. Scholars are examining the Case study as a Method
transtheoretical linkages between caring the-
ories and other nursing conceptual systems oF researCh
(Watson & Smith, 2002). Important research
questions center on the relationship between
caring and healing outcomes, the qualities Although case study as a research approach
of a caring consciousness, the ontological has been used in nursing and the social sci-
competencies and types of nursing therapeu- ences for decades, there is little clarity about
tics that are caring based, and the types of case study methodology. It is described
environments and communities that facili- by some as a research method or strategy
tate caring. nursing is the discipline that is (Jones & Lyons, 2004; Yin, 2003), a method
studying the relationship between caring of data collection (Gangeness & Yurkovich,
relationships and healing. Research needs 2006; Lincoln & Guba, 1985), a research design
to move beyond examining caring in nurse– (Bergen & White, 2000), and a technique for
patient relationships to caring relationships teaching (Henning, nielsen, & Hauschildt,
with family, friends, animals, nature, and the 2006). Stake (1995) considers the case as the
Divine and how these relationships affect unit of study rather than a methodologic
health outcomes. It will be important to study choice. Although there is lingering confusion
both caregiver and recipient outcomes of car- about case study, most experts agree that
ing theory-based models of practice in differ- case study is a way to describe, to explore,
ent settings. Swanson (1999) offered several to understand, and to evaluate a phenom-
suggestions for future research related to enon within the context in which it occurs
caring: developing measures of caring capac- (Anthony & Jack, 2009; Stake, 1995; Yin, 2003).
ity, examining the effects of nurturing and In addition, it is a valuable tool to explore the
experience on caring capacity, identifying transition between theory and practice.
and measuring the competing variables The earliest use of case study was as
that may confound the links between car- a teaching technique reported in 1870 at
ing actions and their outcomes, moving from Harvard Law School (Garvin, 2003). From
studying the individual as unit of analysis to there, it spread to other disciplines such as
studying aggregates, and developing clinical business, medicine, and nursing. Case study