The present study is concerned with the operational experience of female directors of long‐term home care facilities. It was tried to review their experiences in the operation of the facility in details and to analyze them comprehensively from the p...
The present study is concerned with the operational experience of female directors of long‐term home care facilities. It was tried to review their experiences in the operation of the facility in details and to analyze them comprehensively from the perspective of female directors. In other words, I tried to understand the nature of the field experiences of the directors through in‐depth interviews on female directors utilizing a phenomenal method.
The participants in this study are female directors of the facilities that provide more than 2 kinds of home care services, have more than 20 workers, whose education level is equivalent to or over university graduate and who have more than 2 years experience in the operation of long‐term home care facilities. The materials obtained from the preliminary survey and in‐depth interviews on these 10 participants were analyzed using the phenomenal method by Giorgi. I could induce 68 meaningful units, 26 sub components, 15 components and 7 area structures from the field experiences of the directors.
The first area structure was the motive that they started to operate the facility where subcomponents such as elders like children, My Parents and I were integrated into the component such as (1) Loving Mind.
Second, in experiences when they started the facility at first, there were three experiences such as (1) ‘Face’ to new environments, (2) Stress of facility operation, and (3) Consolation to mind.
Third, the exterior problems facing during the operation of the facility were sorted as (1) Refusal of service because of sense of pressure, (2) Behavioral changes according to benefits, and (3) infinite competition with other facilities.
Fourth, the interior problems facing during the operation of the facility were sorted as regarding the bi‐directional emotion from the perspective of beneficiaries and from the perspective of service providers and facility.
Fifth, institutional problems that they faced during the operation of the facility were categorized as (1) Service Tariff, (2) Service Contract, and (3) Service Grade.
Sixth, the roles of female directors that they had experienced while they were operating the institution were (1) Composition of emotional sympathy, and (2) Vocational consciousness.
The last seventh area structure was the meaning or sense of achievement that they had experienced while they operated the facility which was divided into two kinds of experiences such as (1) Change of perceptions of the family, and (2) Pride and sense of calling.
From the research results, the following conclusions were made regarding the question of “What are the operational experiences of female directors of the facilities?” Female directors are reborn as the subjects of the society making positive influences on the beneficiaries, their families and themselves. Additionally, it was possible to identify the problems of the field as they described their field experiences vividly and candidly, providing the base for future improvements.