Experiences of a PAR Intervention in Care for Older People

Abstract

Participatory action research (PAR) is an approach for dealing with problematic areas in practice. Follow-up studies in which participants describe their participation in PAR in detail are rare. This follow-up study aimed to describe care providers’ (CPs) experiences of having participated in a PAR intervention designed to assist them to constructively deal with troubled conscience. Twenty-nine CPs who participated in a PAR intervention were interviewed 2 to 4 months post-intervention. Content analysis was used to analyze the data. The analysis revealed three main categories: the importance of having a communal and collaborative meeting place, perceived changes in daily life, and “It has been good, but it has not solved all of our problems.” Using PAR to deal with troubled conscience might be an important organizational investment for the future that can help prevent ill health among CPs and maintain or improve the quality of care.