Successful adaptation to chronic illness is enhanced by active client—health care provider partnerships. The purposes of this article are to (a) examine the health care partnership needs of western rural women with chronic illness who participated in a computer-based support and education project, (b) describe how the role of the women in the partnership can be maximized by the use of a personal health record and improving health literacy, and (c) discuss ways health care providers can enhance their role in the partnership by careful listening and creating environments conducive to forging productive client—provider partnerships.
Aguilar, N. ( 1997). Counseling the patient with chronic illness: Strategies for the health care provider. Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, 9, 171-175.
2.
Alexander, I. ( 2004). Characteristics of and problems with primary care interactions experienced by an ethnically diverse group of women. Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, 16, 300-310.
3.
American Health Information Management Association/ American Medical Informatics Association. ( 2007). The value of personal health records: A joint position statement for consumers of health care. Retrieved from http://www.ahima.org/downloads/pdfs/advocacy/MicrosoftWordAHIMA-AMIAPHRStatement-final2-2007.pdf
4.
Balint, M. ( 1957). The doctor, his patient and the illness. New York, NY: International Universities.
5.
Benner, P. ( 2001). The phenomenon of care. In S. K. Toombs (Ed.), Handbook of phenomenology and medicine (pp. 351-369). Boston, MA: Kluwer Academic.
6.
Bodenheimer, T., & Holman, H. (n.d.). Chronic disease self-management in primary care. Retrieved from http://www.improvingchroniccare.org/downloads/selfmanagementpaper.doc
7.
Cali, D.D., & Estrada, C. ( 1999). The medical interview as rhetorical counterpart of the case presentation. Health Communication, 11(4),355-373.
8.
Clark, N., Nothwehr, F., Gong, M., Evans, D., Maiman, L., Hurwitz, M., . . . Mellins, R.B. ( 1995). Physician partnership in managing chronic illness. Academic Medicine, 70, 957-959.
9.
College of Nurses of Ontario. (2006). Practice standard: Therapeutic nurse-client relationship. Retrieved from www.cno.org/docs/prac/41033_Therapeutic.pdf
10.
Courtney, R., Ballard, E., Fauver, S., Gariota, M., & Holland, L. ( 1996). The partnership model: Working with individuals, families, and communities toward a new vision of health. Public Health Nursing, 13, 177-186.
11.
Cudney, S., Winters, C., Weinert, C., & Anderson, K. ( 2005). Social support in cyberspace: Lessons learned. Rehabilitation Nursing, 30, 25-29.
12.
Donohue, R. ( 2003). Nurse practitioner-client interaction as resource exchange in a women’s health clinic: An exploratory study. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 12, 717-725.
13.
Eberhardt, M., Ingram, D., Makuc, D., Pamuk, E., Fried, V., Harper, S., . . . Xia, H. ( 2001). Urban and rural health chartbook. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics .
14.
Federal Citizen Information Center. (2008). Personal health records. Retrieved from http://www.pueblo.gsa.gov/cfocus/cfphr07/focus.htm
15.
Fox, S., & Chesla, C. ( 2008). Living with chronic illness: A phenomenological study of the health effects of the patient-provider relationship. Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, 20, 109-117.
16.
Gallant, M., Beaulieu, M., & Carnevale, F.A. (2002). Partnership: An analysis of the concept within the nurse-client relationship. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 40, 149-157.
17.
Goold, S., & Lipkin, M., Jr. (1999). The doctor-patient relationship: Challenges, opportunities, and strategies. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 14, S26-S32.
18.
Hall, J., Roter, D., & Katz, N. ( 1988). Meta-analysis of correlates of provider behavior in medical encounter. Medical Care, 26, 657-675.
19.
Heller, K., & Solomon, M. ( 2005). Continuity of care and caring: What matters to parents of children with life-threatening conditions. Journal of Pediatric Nursing, 20, 335-346.
20.
Holman, H., & Lorig, K. ( 2000). Patients as partners in managing chronic disease. Partnership is a prerequisite for effective and efficient health care. British Medical Journal, 320, 526-527.
21.
Kaplan, S.H., Greenfield, S., & Ware, J.E., Jr. (1989). Assessing the effects of physician-patient interactions on the outcome of chronic disease. Medical Care , 27(Suppl.), S110-S127.
22.
Lagana, K. ( 2000). The "right" to a caring relationship: The law and ethic of care. Journal of Perinatal and Neonatal Nursing, 14, 12-23.
23.
Lee, H. ( 1989). Quantitative validation of health perceptions in rural persons. Unpublished manuscript, Montana State University , College of Nursing, Bozeman, MT.
24.
Long, K., & Weinert, C. ( 1989). Rural nursing: Developing the theory base. Scholarly Inquiry for Nursing Practice, 3, 113-127.
25.
Lorig, K., & Holman, H. ( 2003). Self-management education: History, definition, outcomes, and mechanisms. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 26, 1-7.
26.
National Education Association. (2008). Building a personal health record. Retrieved from http://www.neamb.com/home/1215_963.htm
27.
Norwood, S. ( 2000). Research strategies for advanced practice nurses. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall Health.
28.
Nowotny, M., & McCarthy, D. ( 2007). Case study: Iowa’s Health Literacy Collaborative is transforming patient-provider communication. Retrieved from http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Content/Innovations/Case-Studies/2007/Mar/Case-Study--Iowas-Health-Literacy-Collaborative-Is-Transforming-Patient-Provider-Communication.aspx
29.
Orth, J., Stiles, W., Scherwitz, L., Hennrikus, D., & Vallbona, C. ( 1987). Patient exposition and provider explanation in routine interviews and hypertensive patients’ blood pressure control. Health Psychology, 6, 29-42.
30.
Partnership for Clear Health Communication Steering Committee. (2003). Eradicating low health literacy: The first public health movement of the 21st century. Overview . Retrieved from http://healthpowerforminorities.org/specific/EradicatingLowHealthcareLiteracy.pdf
31.
QSR International. (2008). NVivo 8 Tutorial. Retrieved from http://download.qsrinternational.com/Document/NVivo8/NVivo8-Introducing-NVivo.htm
32.
Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario. ( 2002). Best practice guideline: Client centred care. Retrieved from http://www.rnao.org/Storage/15/932_BPG_CCCare_Rev06.pdf
33.
Ross, H. ( 1982). Women and wellness: Defining, attaining, and maintaining health in eastern Canada. Dissertation Abstracts International , 42(5175A).
34.
Stewart, M., Brown, J., Levenstein, J., McCracken, E., & McWhinney, J. ( 1986). The patient-centered clinical method: Changes in residents’ performance over two months of training. Family Practice, 3, 164-167.
35.
Stewart, M.A. ( 1995). Effective physician-patient communication and health outcomes: A review. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 152(9), 1423-1433.
36.
Tapp, D. ( 2000). The ethics of relational stance in family nursing: Resisting the view of "nurse as expert." Journal of Family Nursing, 6, 69-91.
37.
Thorne, S. ( 2006). Patient-provider communication in chronic illness: A health promotion window of opportunity. Family and Community Health, 29(1,Suppl.), 4S-11S.
38.
Thorne, S., Ternulf, N., & Paterson, B. ( 2000). Attitudes toward patient expertise in chronic illness . International Journal of Nursing Studies, 37, 303-311.
39.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. ( 2006). Personal health records and personal health record systems: A report and recommendations from the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics. Washington, DC: National Center for Health Statistics.
40.
Wagner, E.H., Austin, B.T., Davis, C., Hindmarsh, M., Schaefer, J., & Bonomi, A. ( 2001). Improving chronic illness care: Translating evidence into action. Health Affairs, 20, 64-78.
41.
Weinert, C. ( 2000). Social support in cyberspace for women with chronic illness . Rehabilitation Nursing, 25, 129-135.
Weinert, C., Cudney, S., & Winters, C. ( 2005). Social support in cyberspace: The next generation. Computers, Informatics, Nursing, 23, 7-15.
44.
Weinert, C., Whitney, A., Hill, W., & Cudney, S. ( 2006). Chronically ill women’s view of health care. Online Journal of Rural Nursing and Health Care. Retrieved from http://www.rno.org/journal/index.php/online-journal/article/viewFile/42/52
45.
Williams, A., & Jones, M. ( 2006). Patients’ assessments of consulting a nurse practitioner: The time factor. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 53, 188-195.
46.
Winters, C. ( 1999). Heart failure: Living with uncertainty. Progress in Cardiovascular Nursing, 14, 85-91.
