NURSES PERCEPTIONS OF THEIR NEEDS FOR COMMUNITY INFORMATION - RESULTSOF AN EXPLORATORY-STUDY IN SOUTHWESTERN ONTARIO

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of visiting nurs es in helping the elderly gain access to community resources. The rese arch questions focused on the situations in which nurses need communit y information; how they obtain, manage, and disseminate that informati on; and what barriers they face in the process. Using the grounded the ory approach and the critical incident technique, thirty-minute tape-r ecorded interviews were conducted with nine visiting nurses. Findings revealed that nurses use community information and employ diverse ways for finding, maintaining, and disseminating it. Furthermore, they per ceive Value in information and referral as a means of helping seniors recover from illness and integrating them back into the community.