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6. Phase Two
6.1 Phase Two: Enhancing Autonomy
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Chapter 6 Phase Two
The findings from phase one of this research led to a second phase of research.
Phase one adopted a case study approach and phase two adopted an action
research approach. Phase two of this research will now be described.
6.1.2 Introduction
The case study for phase one of this research explored autonomy for older people
in one residential care unit. Problems with resident autonomy were identified
from the documentary analysis and confirmed by the findings from the
observation and interview data. It was observed that residents who were more
independent were more likely to experience autonomy, whereas those who were
more dependent were least likely. The interviews revealed that the majority of
staff felt that it was important to give choices to residents and to document and
accommodate their preferences. However, the observations revealed that daily
work often followed a routine and that direct resident care was clustered into
peak times as staff rosters ensured that staff were not evenly spread across the
working day. Therefore the capacity to facilitate choice was less likely to be
present across the day. Interviews with residents also revealed that they often felt
that staff did not know who they really were, what their values were and did not
always feel that they were treated as individuals with their own personalities,
wishes and desires. The researcher presented these findings from phase one to the
staff participants. Following discussion of the findings, the staff participants
identified that there was a problem with the residents’ autonomy in their
residential care unit and thus expressed a desire to enhance the residents’
autonomy. At this point the relationships between the researcher and the research
participants were such that the researcher was motivated to help them to address
the problems with resident autonomy which were identified. Hence, the
researcher agreed to help with addressing one of the problems identified. Thus
phase two of the research commenced. The researcher discussed the various
research approaches which could be adopted for this phase of the research. All
agreed that the principles of action research (AR) could be used to guide a small