| Objectives1. The academic purpose:At present, there are rare ethnographic works in the field of mainland nursing research, the ethnography as a qualitative research method of the culture research and it is the best way to describe diverse nursing culture. This study intends to use ethnographic research methods to explore, description and analysis the culture of left-behind elderly’ health care in the ethnic regions in southwest of Hubei province, hope to enrich and develop the research methods of ethnographic works in the field of mainland nursing research.2. The personal purpose:When I was a child I used to be a left-behind children and Lived with elderly left-behind grandma and grandpa, witnessed their hard toil and suffering, and there are many left-behind elderly like this situation in my village. The study centre on the health care conditions of this special group, listen to their multichannel voice is my personal goal, I hope I can through their stories, case and scenario to call more people to understand their feelings and solve their health care problems.Method The study adopts the ethnography which is suite to explore people’s way of life, values and behavior patterns in the specific culture and to depict the specific people’ culture in detailedly, dynamically and contextualized. The research methods are as follows:1. Participant observation:Researcher go deep the study place of village clinics, private clinics and left-behind old people’s home, observe their health care situation, and focus on their attitude and disposition of the disease, and the condition of service which given to left-behind elderly by medical staffs.2. Interview:In order to avoid the objects feel constraint and reserve in answer the questions and concerns, so in the early stage adopts the structured interview. As research continues, and further familiar with the objects, in order to better understanding of some problems, in the late stages of research, joined a formally structured interview.3. Object analyses:By collecting left-behind elderly’literatures, pictures and their health check-up report to analysis.Results1. In the field work, I have interviewed and observed 23 left-behind elderly, their age concentrated in 61 to 76 years old, among them 7 males and 16 females, and with low education level, most (91%) as the primary school culture or illiterate. More than half of them (70%) need to raise their grandchildren from lto 3.Their annual income from 2000 to 10000 RMB, it mainly from children of migrant workers mailing, selling food and vegetables, odd jobs, and a pension from the government, if the old man who rated as low-income residents would have some lower premiums. Meanwhile, these left-behind elderly were out of condition, sick number forml to 3, mainly include:high blood pressure, diabetes, lumbar disc, rheumatism, etc. In addition, I have interviewed 11 left-behind elderly health care related agencies and individuals, include local government civil affairs departments, rural cooperative medical office, welfare house, the village committee, village clinics and so on.2. In the field work, through participatory observation and in-depth interviews, I have collected text information more than seventy thousand words. In addition, I have collected the copy of health check-up report of some elderly, health education lecture courseware, photos etc materials. Through analyzing these data, this ethnography has found four cultural phenomena in the left-behind elderly’ health care in the ethnic regions in southwest of Hubei province:(1) Taboo to live in a nursing home-the thought of home-based care deeply rooted:Its reason can be summed up as:They think the nursing home is elders’home, its childless old people to check in; Worry about their children be considered not filial to them and damaged the reputations of themselves and their children; They can work, can raise grandchildren, so let their children working to earn more money; Living in a nursing home would be constrained and charge, it will increase the economic burden of their children.(2) Rear sons for help in old age-the traditional family pension mode is embarrassed:L village since ancient times has a preference for son birth custom, think birth son getting old will have to rely on, someone to look after them. However, rear sons for help in old age did not achieve the desired results, children working out for a long time, the old parents were lack of economy, daily care and spiritual consolation form their sons, the traditional family pension mode is embarrassed.(3) Out of condition-the diversity.of disease treatment:The left-behind elderly in L village were out of condition, in the face of ill, in addition to go to the hospital treatment, sometimes they regardless of it or find ways to treat yourself, even believe in shaman, adopt the method of "dress up" to treat sickness.(4) Shortage of resources-the imbalance of medical care service between supply and demand:In the L village, the most demand of the village clinic medical care service project of Left-behind elderly are:general disease care, home-entry diagnosis and treat, emergency care. But village clinics shortage of manpower and material resources, financial resources and other resources, does not satisfy the patients’ medical needs in the home-entry diagnosis and treat, emergency care, the imbalance of medical care service between supply and demand phenomenon existed.Conclusion This ethnography has found four cultural phenomenon in the left-behind elderly’ health care in the ethnic regions in southwest of Hubei province:Taboo to nursing home-home care thought deeply rooted; Raising son for old age-traditional family pension mode is embarrassed; The health condition is not so good-diversity of disease treatment; Shortage of resources-health care services imbalance between supply and demand. The cultural phenomenon showed difficulties and demand of left-behind elderly for health care. Suggest those departments and individuals which related to left-behind elderly health care, according to their needs to provide care measures, to promote a healthy pension and realize the aging of the population strategy target-healthy aging at an early time. |
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