Finding a Balance Toward a Substantive Theory of Employed Mothers ’ Personal and Family Health Decision Making

Purpose: We investigated how mothers employed in support staff positions make personal and family health decisions. Design: We used a critical feminist grounded theory design. Methods: Twenty women employed at a large Canadian institution participated over two years in repeat interactive inter-views. Findings: “Finding a balance ” was the emergent core process of health decision making in response to the basic social problem of multiple demands and uncoordinated, sometimes conflicting ideologies. Women emphasized recursive movement within a continuous process of four action phases: cueing in, figuring out, generating solutions, and assessing results. Two distinct views of finding a bal-ance were revealed: weighing competing interests or harmonizing multiple interests. These distinctive views contributed to variation in women’s approaches to decision making and to their personal and family health experiences. Conclusions: Women’s experiences suggest a capacity for reflective practice in health decision making that provides an excellent basis for holistic, emancipatory nursing practice