Nurses' Perceptions of Their Needs for Community Information: Results of an Exploratory Study in Southwestern Ontario

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of visiting nurses in helping the elderly gain access to community resources. The research questions focused on the situations in which nurses need community information; how they obtain, manage, and disseminate that information; and what barriers they face in the process. Using the grounded theory approach and the critical incident technique, thirty-minute tape-recorded 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 perceive value in information and referral as a means of helping seniors recover from illness and integrating them back into the community.